IC-NRLF 


B    3 


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PURPLE 


AND 


FINE     L  I  N;  E  N 


A    NOVEL. 


BY 

EDGAR    FAWCETT. 


•V 


.V 


PURPLE 


AND 


FINE     LINEN 


A    NOVEL. 


BY 

EDGAR    FAWCETT. 


Quiconque  aima  jamais  porte  une  cicatrice ; 
Chacun  1'a  clans  le  sein,  toujours  prete  a  s'ouvrir ; 
Chacun  la  garde  en  soi,  cher  et  secret  supplice, 
Et  niieux  il  est  frapp6,  moins  il  en  veut  gu6rir. 

ALFRED  DE  MUSSET. 


NEW    YORK: 
G.    W.    Carkton   &   Co.,   Publishers. 

LONDON:    S.   LOW,   SON  &  CO. 
M.DCCC.LXX1II. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873,  by 

EDGAR    FAWCETT, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Stereotyped  at  the 

WOMEN'S     PRINTING     HOUSE, 

56,  58  and  60  Park  Street, 

New  York. 


PURPLE   AND   FINE   LlNEKf: 


CHAPTER   I. 

|EPT.  21. — I  wonder  why  mamma  always  crowds 
Pineside  with  people  the  first  week  in  October. 
I  think  that  she  does  so  partly  because  we  are 
pretty  sure  to  have  divine  days  at  that  period,  and  partly 
because  if  ever  people  are  obtainable  as  country-visitors 
it  is  just  then, — at  least  the  sort  which  mamma  likes  to 
have  about  her. 

Now  that  October  is  on  the  verge  of  appearing  again, 
it  seems  very  natural  that  certain  preparations  should 
be  made  among  the  "  many-corridored  complexities  " 
of  Pineside ;  preparations  which  I  have  observed 
speechlessly.  For  that  matter,  I  usually  observe  all  the 
features  of  mamma's  domestic  management  with  silence 
enough  to  quite  charm  a  sphynx.  It  is  very  possible 
that  if  I  should  discover  combustible  indications  among 
halls  and  pantries,  some  morning,  of  an  intent  on 
mamma's  part  to  burn  the  house  down,  my  objections 
to  such  a  procedure  would  merely  take  the  placid  form 
of  rushing  for  personal  valuables.  Mrs.  Jeffreys  is  a 
despot  in  her  own  household  ;  and  I,  the  despot's  only 

8S9797 


6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

child,  am  certainly  not  her  grand  vizier.  Indeed,  if  I 
hold  any  portfolio  at  all  in  our  little  principality,  it  must 
be  represented  by  such  a  sinecure  that  I  am  only  re- 
.q.uired  to  mind  my  .own  affairs  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of 
office.  .  V  \*/\ 

.  .  Throughout  the,  week  previous  to  our  siege  of  autumn 
Vfsiiors;  -1  hbj>e  \fy  pass  a  very  agreeable  time  ;  and  even 
if  there  should  be  nobody  among  the  arrivals  next  week 
whom  it  isn't  the  dual  burden  of  a  bore  and  a  falsehood 
for  one  to  say  that  one  is  glad  to  see,  I  shall  still  have 
my  little  box  of  memorial  ointment,  perhaps,  in  the 
shape  of  last  week's  remembered  occurrences. 

Not  since  mamma  and  I  got  back  from  Newport  on 
the  final  day  of  August,  have  I  known  much  positive 
enjoyment.  True,  girls  and  men  have  been  up  from 
town  to  see  me  all  through  September ;  and  among  the 
latter  were  those  whom  I  really  like,  too,  as  well  as  those 
for  whom  my  feelings  run  the  emotional  gamut  the 
whole  way  from  indifference  to  disgust.  But  until  last 
week  I  have  always  been  attacked  with  violent  inciden- 
tal yearnings  that  he  or  he  or  he  would  go  away  and 
not  render  it  a  necessity  for  me  to  eat  my  breakfast  with 
unrebukable  hair  and  a  blameless  morning-dress.  If 
mamma  would  only  not  make  mankind  such  a  rigid 
weekly  requirement  at  Pineside,  perhaps  I  should  never 
fall  a  victim  to  these  painfully  unfeminine  feelings.  If 
she  would  only  let  a  Sunday  come,  now  and  then,  with- 
out the  irreversible  male  visitor,  there  is  much  likelihood 
that  I  should  learn  to  see  the  awful  social  vacuum  thus 
made  as  it  deserves  to  be  seen.  I  suppose  mamma's 
system  will  terminate  with  my  marriage,  and  with  noth- 
ing else.  And  looking  at  the  case  from  this  matrimon- 
ial stand-point,  I  should  call  it  a  system  without  much 
chance  of  prompt  termination. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  j 

Day  after  to-morrow,  two  men  with  either  of  whom  I 
usually  manage  to  obtain  a  creditable  amount  of  amuse- 
ment, intend  beginning  a  week's  visit  at  Pineside.  Of 
course  my  fixed  certainty  that  Melville  Delano  is  the 
special  abomination  of  Fuller  Dobell,  and  that  -Fuller 
Dobell  occupies  back  attic  apartments  in  the  affections 
of  Melville  Delano,  would  have  prevented  me  from  put- 
ting, of  my  own  accord,  two  such  nicely  harmonious 
souls  under  one  and  the  same  roof.  Fate,  and  not 
I,  must  bear  the  blame  of  this  unlucky  combination. 
Each  of  them  had  promised  me  a  week  at  some  time 
during  the  summer.  Melville  Delano,  when  I  had  last 
seen  him  in  town,  was  vague  on  the  subject  of  when  his 
vacation  from  business  would  take  place — poor  hard- 
working fellow  that  he  is,  with  three  pretentious  sisters 
to  keep  dragging  him  down  forever,  always  failing  to 
get  married,  and  dancing  about  in  his  earnings  with  such 
a  matter-of-course  kind  of  cruelty  !  Anyhow,  he  was 
anxious  to  spend  a  half  of  his  fortnight  at  Pineside 
whenever  he  found  himself  able  to  get  away  from  town  ; 
and  it  had  been  arranged  that  he  should  drop  me  a  note 
just  before  the  opportunity  offered  itself. 

This  note  came  yesterday  by  the  same  mail  as  Fuller 
Dobell's.  I  mean  Mr.  Dobell's.  I  don't  know  him  well 
enough  to  call  him  Fuller,  even  in  the  presence  of  this 
little  double-extra-confidential  morocco-bound  second 
self,  my  diary.  Mamma  had  given  orders  at  Newport 
that  Mr.  Dobell  was  to  be  invited  here  before  we  left, 
and  that  a  week  was  to  be  offered  him,  with  suggestions 
to  take  it  whenever  he  wished.  This  great  sugar-plum 
of  civility  was  of  course  presented  just  as  it  had  come 
forth  from  the  confectionery  of  maternal  courtesy.  But 
what  Mr.  Dobell  probably  found  quite  toothsome  and 
savory,  was  to  me  rather  bitter  and  unpalatable.  He  is 


g  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

a  man  t$>  whom  I  should  never,  of  my  own  accord,  extend 
any  exorbitant  civility — not,  indeed,  without  knowing 
him  much  better  than  I  know  him  now,  and  having  got- 
ten rid  (were  such  a  thing  possible)  of  an  occasional 
gnawing  suspicion  that  he  considers  mamma  a  sort  of 
ponderous  snob  and  myself  unlikely  at  any  future  period 
to  perpetrate  the  smallest  incendiary  act  upon  the  Hud- 
son. However,  mamma  had  said  ;  and  it  was  for  me  to 
obey. 

Mr.  Dobell  agreed  to  do  very  much  as  Melville  Delano 
had  agreed  to  do,  with  the  exception  that  what  leisure 
one  might  be  able  to  snatch  from  the  pressing  require- 
ments of  business,  the  other  had  only  to  snatch  from 
those  of  personal  enjoyment.  I  suppose,  on  the  whole, 
that  this  latter  gentleman  has  reduced  pleasure  to  about 
as  thorough  a  business  as  it  is  capable  of  being  made. 
By  the  way,  I  believe  that  an  account  of  these  invita- 
tions has  been  given  pages  ago,  Diary.  But  you  don't 
care  for  that,  do  you,  pearl  of  confidants  ?  I  can  tell 
you  a  thing  twenty  times  over  and  never  bore  you  a  bit, 
sweet  morocco  model  of  patience  and  self-control ! 

Both  notes  were  very  nice  reading.  Both  regretted 
having  been  delayed  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Pineside 
until  so  late  in  the  season.  Both  informed  me  that  their 
writers  had  made  efforts  to  come  at  an  earlier  date. 
Both  furthermore  stated  that  their  writers  would  be 
happy  to  take  the  five  o'clock  train  on  Saturday  after- 
noon, provided  such  an  arrangement  suited. 

I  brought  the  notes  to  mamma,  who  laid  down  her 
novel  graciously  on  hearing  the  writers'  names.  I  am 
not  sure  that  mamma  omitted  polishing  her  gold  eye- 
glasses as  a  serene  token  of  respect  toward  these  notice- 
able documents.  She  is  not  one  to  approach  even  the 
handwriting  of  important  people  without  a  little  gentle 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  g 

ceremoniousness,  and  the  present  epistolary  collision 
was  of  enough  consequence  not  to  be  surveyed  through 
an  eye-glass  dimly. 

"  It's  a  little  awkward,  you  know,"  I  began  to  ramble 
whilst  she  read.  "  Neither  of  the  men  like  each  other, 
I'm  sure.  Mr.  Dobell  has  certainly  procrastinated  as 
though  he  hadn't  a  remote  suspicion  what  the  thief  of 
time  is.  Positively,  I  think  he  deserves  to  be  snubbed  a 
trifle,  with  nothing  on  earth  to  prevent  him  from  com- 
ing earlier  except  his  languid  caprices.  There  isn't  a 
doubt  that  the  engagements  he  speaks  of  have  been 
made  since  I  asked  hmi  here.  It's  so  different  with 
Melville  Delano.  Everybody  understands  how  hard  he 
has  to  work,  and — " 

Mamma's  frown  stopped  me.  It  was  one  of  her  most 
august  successes  in  the  imperial  way,  that  frown  mamma 
was  frowning.  It  said  with  curious  coherence  that  I 
was  to  hold  my  tongue,  and  stop  running  down  a  per- 
son whom  I  might  much  better  praise.  She  had  fin- 
ished Melville  Delano's  note  by  this  time,  and  was 
occupied  with  Mr.  Dobell's.  Not  until  in  the  act  of 
restoring  that  to  its  envelope  did  the  enunciation  of  her 
orders  commence. 

((  Let  Melville  Delano  come,  if  you  wish  him.  I 
cannot  see  why  a  visit  from  Fuller  Dobell  should  keep 
him  away.  It  is  very  kind  of  Fuller  Dobell  to  remem- 
ber your  invitation — very  kind."  Mamma  showed  how 
kind  she  considered  it  by  a  little  dreamy  self-absorbed 
smile,  quite  ignoring  my  presence,  and  giving  one  of 
the  candlesticks  on  the  opposite  mantel  every  reason  to 
believe  itself  her  bosom-friend.  Suddenly  the  smile  van- 
ished, and  the  candlestick  lost  favor,  and  mamma  turned 
toward  me.  "  You  ought  to  esteem  it  an  honor,  Helen, 
to  have  a  man  like  Mr.  Dobell  pay  you  attention." 
1* 


IO  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  If  it  is  paying  me  attention,"  I  dared,  "to  post- 
pone until  the  last  possible  moment  the  acceptance  of  aa 
invitation  given  weeks  previously,  then  I  shall  much 
prefer  the  man's  rudeness  to  his  civility." 

"  Tush  !  "  asserted  mamma,  lending  force  to  her  ire- 
ful monosyllable  by  rapping  rather  sharply  on  the  table 
at  her  side.  "  I  won't  argue  the  matter.  You  under- 
stand my  meaning  clearly  enough.  Fuller  Dobell  is 
more  to  me  than  many  Melville  Delanos.  I  wish  he  were 
to  you.  Now  go  and  answer  both  letters  ;  one  in  as 
cordial  terms  of  acquiescence  as  you  and  Noah  Webster 
can  manage  between  you,  and  the  other —  '  mamma 
made  her  shoulders  inform  me  that  it  was  quite  immate- 
rial what  answer  I  gave  the  other.  And  in  reply  to 
such  negative  sort  of  permission  as  the  shoulders  had 
bestowed, 

"There  had  better  be  some  girl,"  I  recommended: 
"  if  those  two  men,  disliking  each  other,  are  both  here 
at  once,  I  shall  probably  have  my  hands  full,  in  a  social 
sense." 

"  You  forget  me,"  bristled  mamma,  feeling  one  of 
her  large  gray  front-puffs  with  majesty.  "  Mr.  Dobell 
and  I  are  excellent  friends.  However,  have  Selina 
Matthers  up  if  you  still  cling  to  Melville  Delano.  Poor 
Selina  will  be  delighted  to  come." 

"  I  don't  doubt  it  at  all.  You  are  not  making  any 
mistake  ?  Selina  is  the  one  with  the  Mouth  and  Teeth." 

"  And  Rachel  is  the  pretty  one.  But  I  mean  Selina. 
Mrs.  Matthers  will  be  charmed  at  my  kindness." 

"Which  is  more  than  our  two  other  guests  will  be. 
The  girl  is  so  ugly  that  she  awes  me,  at  times.  I  doubt 
if  she  comes." 

But  I  wrote  for  her.  And  whilst  engaged  upon  this 
note  and  the  two  others,  I  could  ill  keep  my  mind  from 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  u 

asking  itself  whether  mamma  was  really  bent  upon  try- 
ing to  make  anything  of  an  important  character  result 
from  this  meditated  visit  of  Mr.  Fuller  Dobell. 

Has  she  advised  (the  word  has  keen  irony  when  used 
with  reference  to  one  of  mamma's  fiats)  that  Selina 
Matthers  be  made  my  companion  next  week,  simply 
because  Selina  Matthers,  ugly  enough  to  sit  for  a  grave- 
yard ghoul,  may  bring  out  physical  contrast  with  superb 
effect?  Such  a  manoeuvre  is  unworthy  of  mamma's 
tact  and  common-sense.  Mr.  Fuller  Dobell  will  be 
much  more  likely  to  invest  me  with  an  atmosphere  of 
the  grotesquely  horrible  than  anything  else.  Poor  Se- 
lina !  I  was  reading  somewhere,  the  other  day,  about 
"the  moral  uses  of  dark  things."  Assuredly  your 
countenance  and  frame  are  dark  things  enough  to  de- 
serve a  more  moral  use  than  mamma  is  going  to  put 
them  to ! 

Don't  you  feel  like  shuddering,  Diary,  whilst  I  write 
in  you  that  mamma  is  morbidly  anxious  to  have  me 
marry  a  certain  person  ?  The  idea  gripped  her  with  an 
iron  grip  whilst  we  were  at  Newport.  She  shows  it  to 
me  in  hundreds  of  unexplainable  ways.  It  possesses 
her.  She  talks  it,  walks  it,  eats  it,  and  for  all  I  know, 
sleeps  it. 

Nearly  everybody  says  he  has  lost  all  his  money. 
Some  people  say  that  there  seems  no  end  to  his  wild 
oats.  I  remember  hinting  this  last  fact  to  mamma  one 
day  at  Newport,  whilst  he  was  being  nice  to  me  ;  and 
mamma  laughed  very  scornful  denial.  Could  she  have 
done  so  with  a  purpose  ? 

I  don't  believe  she  knows  what  color  his  eyes  are,  for  all 
that  they  are  the  loveliest  deep  deep  blue  realizable.  I 
am  sure  she  would  shrink  from  anything  like  an  affidavit 
concerning  the  shade  of  his  hair.  And  his  suave  ryth- 


12  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

mic  sort  of  voice — I'm  certain  she  has  never  given  that 
a  moment's  regard.  No,  no  ;  it  is  not  the  man  himself, 
with  mamma.  It  is  neither  his  virtues  nor  his  vices,  his 
beauty  nor  his  ugliness,  his  fortune  nor  his  lack  of  for- 
tune. It  is  something  less  palpable  than  all  these,  yet 
in  one  sense  more  palpable.  I  daresay  mamma  con- 
siders that  it  outweighs  them  all.  It  is  his  name. 

Dobell — Fuller  Dobell.  Mamma  worships  those  two 
little  dissyllables.  .She  laughs  at  the  chances  and 
changes  of  New  York  society  ;  she  sneers  mild  sneers 
at  So-and-so  presuming  to  assert  a  social  supremacy 
over  Thus-and-thus  ;  she  makes  the  rustle  of  her  corded 
silks  drown  all  cavilling  murmurs  when  she  moves 
among  the  prosperous  ;  she  may  be  applied  to  at  nearly 
any  hour  for  a  superb  stare  upon  whomsoever  shall 
vaguely  hint  at  papa  having  once  been  at  all  connected 
with  Soap  ;  you  would  be  slow  at  saying  that  her  coupe 
or  her  cachemire  were  the  burdens  of  honors  unto 
which  she  was  not  born ;  and  if  you  were  to  say  so, 
there  is  likelihood  of  her  convincing  you  that  the 
Gorgons  possessed  an  ocular  eccentricity  capable  of 
modern  imitation.  Ah,  no;  nothing  about  mamma 
hints  that  she  reveres  the  shadow  called  birth,  and  yet 
I  am  sure  that  all  her  innermost  thoughts  make  a  right 
devout  genuflection  before  it.  One  will  crave  the  sac- 
charine dainties  after  one's  appetite  has  been  sated  upon 
the  substantiate.  Success  is  an  endless  stairway. 
Mamma  has  money  and  the  social  power  which  money, 
skillfully  managed,  is  apt  to  gain  in  New  York  ;  but 
now  that  she  has  sent  away  so  many  proud  hopes 
ticketed  nil  ultra,  there  yet  remains  a  last  one  to 
torment  her  with  its  unbadged  coyness. 

That  is  the  hope  of  having  my  name  turn  from  Helen 
Jeffreys  to  Helen  Dobell.     "  My  daughter,  Mrs.  Do- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  j^ 

bell,"  is  the  one  boast  she  cannot  make.  I  wonder  if 
her  ambition  is  going  to  o'erleap  itself.  Though  denied 
much  voice  in  the  matter,  I  should  think  yes. 

I  don't  believe  he  was  very  greatly  attracted  at  New- 
port. I  fancy  he  only  came  because  others  came,  and 
with  a  view  to  eclipsing  everybody  else. 

Heavens  !  how  late  it  is  !  I  shouldn't  like  to  shock 
you  by  stating  the  hour,  Diary  dear,  or  flatter  you, 
either.  I  ought  to  get  in  the  habit  of  writing  you  by 
daylight,  and  not  make  myself  your  accomplice  in  the 
destruction  of  all  this  midnight  oil.  It  makes  me  shiver 
to  think  of  how  much  beauty-sleep  you've  stolen  from 
me,  and  those  men  coming  day  after  to-morrow ! 


CHAPTER  II. 

|EPT.  22. — To-day  has  been  a  void  of  eventless- 
ness  ;  or  nearly  so.  It  has  rained  preposter- 
ously and  blown  lugubriously  since  my  earliest 
acquaintance  with  it.  Singular  to  relate,  mamma  and  I 
met  at  breakfast  this  morning,  and  drank  coffee  to- 
gether. We  didn't  behave  specially  charmed  to  see  one 
another.  I  don't  think  that  after  a  polite  mutual  agree- 
ment as  to  its  being  the  equinox,  we  broke  the  coffee- 
sips  and  the  fork-tinkles  at  all  with  human  speech.  I 
saw  promptly  that  mamma  was  in  one  of  her  ignoring 
moods,  and  preferred  holding  my  tongue  to  talking  and 
being  treated  like  a  piece  of  furniture  whilst  I  did  so. 

Between  ourselves,  Diary,  she's  worried.  I  don't 
state  it  for  a  firm  fact,  but  I  have  my  doubts  as  to 
whether  some  potentate  hasn't  been  asked  to  Pineside, 
whose  reply  has  not  yet  made  an  appearance.  Mamma 
has  climbed  high,  but  is  she  yet  quite  unassailable  ? 
Are  there  not  some  people  who  call  her  crown  paste- 
board, and  her  insignia  shreds  and  patches,  social  queen 
though  she  has  made  herself  ?  I  haven't  forgotten  that 
affair  of  hers  with  Mrs.  Wallingford  Ashburne  at  the 
Races,  June  before  last — how  the  vulgar  little  self-styled 
aristocrat  measured  us  both  insolently  from  head  to  foot, 
when  we  went  up  to  speak  with  her  there  on  the  Grand 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  j^ 

Stand,  and  how,  though  mamma  swept  away  so  magnifi- 
cently with  a  protective  arm  in  mine,  \  knew  for  days 
afterward,  by  certain  indubitable  signs,  that  the  iron 
had  entered  her  soul.  She  has  had  her  supreme 
triumphs,  but  she  has  had  her  stinging  failures  likewise ; 
and  though  such  failures  are  now  things  of  yesterday ; 
though  she  can  afford  to  brush  away  future  imperti- 
nences like  mosquitoes,  or  hand  them  back  to  the  owners 
with  a  smile,  as  the  courteously  satanic  gentlemen  in 
the  plays  or  the  stories  have  a  habit  of  treating  the 
bullets  directed  against  them,  yet,  for  all  this,  memories 
are  memories,  the  oldest  veterans  make  the  most  cau- 
tious soldiers,  and  a  black  ugly  past  can  throw  a  very 
black  and  very  ugly  shadow. 

Pineside  is  lovely,  this  saturnine  weather,  if  one  only 
knows  how  to  take  it.  I  mean,  too,  even  when  one  is 
all  alone,  as  I  have  been  to-day.  Immediately  after 
breakfast  I  went  into  the  library  and  remained  there  all 
day,  lunch  and  dinner-time  excepted.  Our  nonpareil 
of  libraries  !  Human  taste  has  never  made  a  more  per- 
fect harmony  of  combination  than  those  lordly  book- 
cases, that  grotesquely-carven  ceiling  which  looks  like 
a  little  Gothic  remnant  left  over  from  the  making  of 
Notre  Dame  or  some  such  mediaeval  somewhere,  the 
marble  heads  of  Dante  and  Milton,  and  Heaven  knows 
who  else,  jutting  out  of  the  dark  wall,  a  yard  or  two 
above  the  great  deep  wainscoting,  and  then,  most 
prominent  charm  of  all,  the  blooming  stained-glass  win- 
dow that  is  a  very  riot  of  glad  color  at  end  of  the 
delicious  solemnity. 

This  morning  I  lit  the  fire  which  waited  to  be  lit  in 
the  huge  cavernous  chimney-place,  and  presently  two 
large  logs  were  wrapped  in  flames,  and  the  room  had 
gotten  the  one  only  thing  this  harsh  day  made  it  want. 


1 6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  spent  the  day  here  reading,  enjoying  an  open-eyed 
nap,  and  reading  again.  Among  other  things  I  read 
The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  and  tried  to  persuade  myself, 
with  the  help  of  mediaeval  surroundings,  that  I  was 
Madeline.  Unfortunately  there  was  a  stained-glass 
window  and  a  quaint-carven  ceiling,  but  no  Porphyro. 
Perhaps  if  I  had  had  a  Porphyro  the  illusion  would  have 
been  perfect. 

I  said  the  day  had  been  eventless.  I  suppose,  how- 
ever, that  a  telegram  which  reached  us  from  Mrs.  Mat- 
thers,  this  evening,  to  the  effect  that  she  "  will  be  very 
happy  to  send  Selina  in  train  specified,"  possesses  the 
dignity  of  an  event.  I  have  been  filled  with  pensive 
dread  ever  since  learning  that  her  arrival  to-morrow  is  a 
certainty,  lest  she  may  possibly  be  a  coward  about  sleep- 
ing alone.  I  can  only  hope  with  silent  fervor  that  I 
shall  not  be  compelled  to  lie  down  in  bed  beside  that 
Mouth,  those  Teeth,  that  general  hideousness.  It  would 
be  like  recklessly  tempting  nightmare. 

Sept.  23. — The  limit  of  my  wakeful  recollections  last 
night  was  something  like  a  hoot  from  the  wind  and  a 
crash  of  rain  against  my  window  ;  but  on  opening  my 
eyes  this  morning,  I  made  the  exhilarating  discovery 
that  it  was  a  vigorous  rigorous  autumn  day,  with  a 
sky  like  a  mighty  hollowed  turquoise  for  blueness  and 
cloudlessness,  and  the  air  delicious  enough  to  make  one 
wish  one  might  cask  stores  of  it  for  future  use. 

I  went  to  the  depot  in  time  for  the  five  o'clock  train, 
and  brought  them  all  home  in  one  of  the  close  carriages. 
I  didn't  need  to  be  precisely  a  clairvoyante  for  the  pur- 
pose of  discovering  that  each  gentleman  was  a  bomb- 
shell to  the  other.  All  through  the  drive  home,  Melville 
Delano  wore  a  look  of  grieved  amazement,  as  though  he 
had  recently  made  some  depressing  discovery  to  the 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  ij 

effect  that  the  world  was  a  hollow  fraud,  but  had  re- 
solved to  suffer  and  be  strong  in  spite  of  this  recent  har- 
rowing knowledge.  He  talked  and  laughed  a  little  more, 
perhaps,  than  seemed  consistent  with  such  evident  in- 
ward melancholy  ;  but  there  was  perceptible  in  both 
words  and  laugh,  I  fancied,  a  ring  of  resignation. 

Mr.  Dobell's  surprise  wore  off  very  rapidly,  I  think. 
But  then  there  is  very  little  that  would  cut  through  that 
hard  rind  of  placidity  he  possesses.  Besides,  he  is  an 
indolent  fellow,  to  whom  it  doesn't  much  matter  whether 
this  week  at  Pineside  is  passed  pleasurably  or  no  ;  it 
isn't  a  piece  of  his  precious  vacation  from  commercial 
drudgeries,  as  in  Melville  Delano's  case.  I  was  not  at 
all  astonished,  on  my  own  part,  to  see  the  two  men 
treat  each  other  with  rather  glaring  geniality.  Not 
astonished,  Diary  dear,  because  I  am  getting  old  enough 
to  understand  that  if  any  facial  artist  wants  to  paint  a 
little  loving-kindness,  he  can  probably  get  his  most 
valuable  practical  hints  from  observing  two  well-bred 
enemies  when  they  meet. 

I  wonder,  by  the  way,  why  these  men  are  enemies. 
Do  they  hate  each  other  badly  enough  to  wait  at  dark 
corners  for  each  other  with  daggers  and  things,  if  New 
York  were  Mantua  or  some  such  place  ?  One  would 
certainly  never  think  so,  to  watch  them.  Wasn't  it 
Kate  Plaisted  who  told  me  that  she  heard  they  were 
once  on  the  verge  of  a  horrid  quarrel  about  something 
which  Fuller  Dobell  had  done  to  Delano's  sister  ? 
Some  rudeness  at  a  party,  wasn't  it  ?  I  daresay  this 
was  mere  gossip.  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  to  hear  that 
the  dislike  was  a  sort  of  mutual  Doctor-Fellism.  Any- 
how, whatever  barnacles  of  idle  report  may  have  clus- 
tered round  it,  the  fact  of  their  enmity  remains.  Every- 
one knows  they  are  not  friends ;  possibly  because  they 


!g  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

are  both  prominent  members  of  one  set,  and  that  the 
leading  set  of  New  York  society. 

Poor  Selina  Matthers  seemed  charmed  with  every- 
thing as  we  drove  her  to  Pineside.  She  tittered  pro- 
fusely, and  in  doing  so,  revealed  her  two  colossal  front 
teeth,  not  to  speak  of  their  many  gigantic  dental  satel- 
lites. There  is  no  forgetting  the  sepulchral  suggestions 
which  that  mouth  of  hers  offers  ;  and  if  one  of  those  front 
teeth,  in  its  slab-shapen  purity,  had  a  Requiescat  or  an 
Our  Tommy  neatly  inscribed  thereon,  the  illusion  would 
be  thorough. 

The  men  didn't  seem  to  mind  her  much,  even  though 
she  was  new  to  them.  Perhaps  their  breeding  prevented 
the  least  outward  sign  from  showing  itself  of  how  ap- 
palled they  were.  Selina  talked  as  well  as  tittered. 
My  limited  acquaintance  with  her  has  until  now  pre- 
cluded the  discovery  that  what  she  says  is  almost  never 
worth  listening  to.  It  is  twaddle  ;  and  twaddle  of  an 
indistinct  articulation,  owing  to  the  teeth.  Nearly  her 
first  remark  after  entering  the  carriage  was  something  to 
the  effect  that  next  winter  she  would  come  out,  and  it 
was  so  jolly  to  think  of  coming  out,  as  she  had  been 
envying  sister  Rachel  for  over  two  years. 

"Good  gracious!"  I  thought,  staring  through  the 
carriage-window  to  avoid  both  pairs  of  masculine  eyes, 
"  she  is  going  to  be  garrulous." 

I  was  right.  It  seems  to  her  quite  natural,  one  would 
say,  that  either  Mr.  Dobell  or  Mr.  Delano  should  oc- 
cupy themselves  with  keen  pleasure  in  talking  to  her 
and  hearing  her  talk  to  them.  She  is  as  self-confident 
as  if  there  were  no  such  things  as  looking-glasses.  One 
cannot  snub  her,  even  were  it  admissible  in  one's  own 
house  ;  the  combination  of  silliness  and  ugliness  is  too 
pathetic  for  that. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  JQ 

If  mamma  has  wanted  to  have  a  great  chasm  of  con- 
trast between  me  and  some  other  girl  during  Mr.  Do- 
bell's  visit,  she  has  veritably  succeeded  in  obtaining  her 
desire.  And  I  tried  to  tell  her  so  with  a  glance,  this 
evening,  as  she  met  us  at  the  door.  Her  copious  cour- 
tesy toward  Selina  doubtless  delighted  its  recipient. 
"  I'd  no  idea  your  mother  would  be  so  glad  to  see  me," 
gushed  the  young  lady,  whilst  I  was  going  upstairs  with 
her.  "  Nor  I,"  was  my  own  mental  response. 

This  being  Melville  Delano's  second  visit  to  Pineside, 
he  seemed  to  accept  its  grandeurs  in  a  rather  matter-of- 
course  way  ;  but  I  saw  plainly  that  Mr.  Dobell  felt,  in 
spite  of  that  unimpressionable  style  he  wears,  the  usual 
quiet  awe  of  our  new-comers.  First  the  august  gate- 
way wrung  from  him  a  little  gentle  deference  as  we 
drove  through  it ;  then  the  noble  amplitudes  of  fluctu- 
ant lawn,  with  their  superb  pines  and  their  lake,  keen- 
silver  in  the  early  autumn  dark  ;  then  the  solemn  ivied 
dignity  of  the  house  itself;  then  the  well-trained  ser- 
vants in  readiness  ;  then  the  wide  long  hall,  with  its 
sombre  rich  beauty  of  detail  ;  then  the  sitting-room, 
that  precious  medley  of  bronzes  and  marbles  and  paint- 
ings against  a  deep-blue  back-ground  ;  and  lastly,  per- 
haps, mamma,  imperial  in  black  silk  and  guipure  trim- 
mings, with  her  peach-colored  skin,  and  her  radiant 
dark  eyes,  and  her  two  great  puffs  of  placid  gray  hair 
at  either  temple. 

I  could  discover  no  difference  between  her  ways  of 
welcoming  the  gentlemen.  Mamma  had  no  intention, 
I  suppose,  to  let  any  difference  be  perceptible.  I  am 
afraid  I  watched  Mr.  Dobell  a  trifle  too  steadily  during 
those  few  moments  in  the  sitting-room,  immediately 
after  our  return  from  the  depot.  I  don't  believe  he 
noticed  the  scrutiny,  but  I  couldn't  have  helped  it  if  he 


2Q  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

had.  I  remembered  that  old  feeling  of  mine — the  feel- 
ing which  his  presence  would  rouse  sometimes  at  New- 
port, even  when  he  was  being  most  civil  and  attentive 
to  me — the  strange  conviction,  strong  in  spite  of  seeming 
so  causeless,  that  a  sort  of  dormant  contempt  for  us, 
and  for  all  people  like  us,  was  smiling  a  languid  invisi- 
ble smile  somewhere  under  that  polite  exterior  of  his. 
Just,  indeed,  as  if  little  voices  were  vaguely  murmuring 
all  around  him,  to  the  effect  that  he  was  a  Dobell  and 
my  better,  and  that  once  upon  a  time — quite  long  ago, 
perhaps — "  a  certain  honest  sort  of  person,  you  know, 
got  terribly  rich  out  of  Soap,  or  something  of  that  de- 
scription." This  evening  I  watched  his  face  with  a 
childish  eagerness  that  I  hope  was  in  a  measure  con- 
cealed. I  wanted  the  majesty  of  Pineside  to  strike  him 
to  the  marrow.  I  wanted  him  to  see  what  a  power 
wealth  is,  in  hands  which  know  how  to  use  it.  I  sat 
near  him,  hoping  that  every  bronze,  every  art-gem, 
every  tasteful  touch  that  the  room  contained,  would 
help  to  impress  him  with  a  sense  of  mingled  splendor 
and  refinement.  I  was  glad  that  mamma  looked  her 
queenly  best.  I  was  glad  that  there  had  been  two 
alert  liveried  servants  in  the  hall  as  we  entered  it,  ready 
for  the  wraps  and  traps,  instead  of  only  one.  For  the 
time  I  felt  myself  to  be  mamma's  accomplice  and  co- 
adjutor in  almost  whatever  plan  she  meditated. 

Wealth  is  a  superb  fact.  The  plebeian  can  appall  the 
prince  with  it.  Whatever  Fuller  Dobell  had  said  or 
acted  Tor  hinted  when  we  were  last  together,  must  be 
answered  now.  Pineside  should  revenge  Newport. 

Mamma  gave  us  a  flawless  dinner  that  evening,  by 
which  I  knew,  of  course,  that  there  was  to  be  a  sister- 
hood of  flawless  dinners  until  the  end  x>f  the  visit.  I 
saw  plainly,  after  the  third  course  or  so,  that  Pierre  had 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2I 

been  put  on  his  mettle.  We  shall  probably  have  noth- 
ing so  sumptuous  whilst  the  multitude  are  here  next 
week  ;  and  we  cannot,  by  reason  of  there  being  a  mul- 
titude, have  anything  half  so  exquisite. 

Selina  Matthers  led  me  to  believe  during  dinner  that 
all  our  magnificence  had  awed  her  into  a  permanent 
silence.  A  little  while  after  we  ladies  had  left  the 
table,  however,  her  bountiful  babblings  re-commenced. 
When  the  men  joined  us,  she  was  evidently,  according 
to  her  own  belief,  in  splendid  conversational  condition 
for  one  of  them.  We  had  gone  into  the  sitting-room. 
Mamma  was  showing  Selina  some  photographs  of 
cosmopolitan  notables  when  they  entered.  I  had 
seated  myself  at  the  piano,  and  was  doing  some  tender 
little  pianissimos  there.  I  knew  that  mamma  intended 
to  arrange  matters  according  to  her  own  satisfaction. 
For  myself,  I  determined  to  be  passive,  just  then.  It 
was  rather  interesting©  watch  how  she  would  manage. 

Mamma  was  seated  near  the  doorway,  with  Selina  at 
her  side.  I  was  at  some  distance  from  them.  Melville 
Delano  entered  first.  I  knew  that  he  was  yearning  for 
a  talk  with  me,  poor  Melville  :  I  knew  that  he  took  in 
the  situation  with  a  rapid  efficient  eye.  If  mamma 
and  Selina  were  to  be  passed,  it  was  only  under  cover 
of  as  beaming  a  smile  as  possible.  Poor  Melville  had 
commenced  to  beam,  his  steps  being  bent  in  my  direc- 
tion though  his  head  turned  propitiatingly  in  another, 
when  mamma's  voice,  polite  with  a  great  politeness, 
ruined  everything. 

"  Don't  you  want  to  see  the  likenesses  of  some  famous 
people,  Mr.  Delano  ?  " 

Of  course  he  was  obliged  at  least  to  appear  to  want 
to  see  the  likenesses  of  some  famous  people  very  much 
indeed.  But  he  couldn't  help  throwing  a  bereaved  look 


22  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

toward  me  whilst  seating  himself  in  the  vacant  place 
mamma  indicated,  at  Selina's  side.  I,  for  my  part, 
answered  the  bereaved  look  with  as  sympathetic  a  little 
pianissimo  as  I  could  command.  And  by  this  time  Mr. 
Dobell,  whom  mamma  had  not  detained  on  his  way 
toward  me,  was  only  a  few  yards  off. 

He  had  a  rather  excited  look  as  he  leant  over  the 
piano  and  began  talking  with  me.  I  think  he  had  been 
drinking  more  than  was  right.  Perhaps  he  had  felt 
himself  forced  to  drink,  in  order  that  relations  of  the 
proper  self-controlled  sort  might  be  preserved  toward 
Melville  Delano  during  the  consumption  of  the  vital 
after-dinner  cigar.  If  "this  is  the  fact,  then  he  is  a  man 
whom  wine  makes  handsomer,  putting  dark  fire  in  his 
eyes  and  a  rich  flush  in  his  fair-skinned  Saxon  face. 

But  does  it  sharpen  his  wits  ?  I  am  not  sure.  It 
certainly  makes  him  say  bold  odd  things  and  act  with  a 
kind  of  devotedness  that  seems  t£  go  swaggering  peril- 
ously along  the  very  verge  of  impertinence. 

But  pshaw !  perhaps  I  only  fancy,  after  all.  I 
shouldn't  wonder  if  I  were  wrong  about  the  wine,  too. 
Why  is  it  that  this  man,  of  all  others,  should  fill  me 
with  queer  doubts  and  suspicions  concerning  nearly 
everything  he  does  ?  Now  I  am  imagining  this  about 
him,  now  that.  I  daresay  the  belief  that  he  ever  puts 
on  those  elusive  undefinable  airs,  in  spite  of  having 
bothered  me  so  much,  springs  also  from  an  imaginative 
source. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  one  thing  :  I  enjoyed  the  even- 
ing superlatively.  From  whatever  cause  Mr.  Dobell 
seemed  different  I  will  admit  to  be  a  mystery; 
but  he  did  seem  so.  The  Newport  man  was  a  sort  of 
shell  from  which  had  emerged  the  Pineside  man.  He 
talked  more.  He  smiled  more.  He  somehow  put  his 


PURPLE  AND  FINE   LINEN.  2$ 

face  nearer  to  mine  whilst  he  talked  and  smiled. 
He  seemed  to  be  having  a  superexcellent  time  and  also 
to  be  acutely  desirous  that  I  should  have  a  superexcel- 
lent time  as  well.  And  I  did.  And  I  do  not  believe, 
on  second  thought,  that  the  wine  is  in  any  manner  an- 
swerable for  what  must  be  called  his  social  amelioration. 
Wine  wears  off,  after  a  while,  and  his  nice  manner  (bold 
and  roguish,  but  nice)  was  too  prolonged  and  regular 
to  have  had  vinous  origin.  No  ;  he  must  be  in  better 
spirits  now  than  when  we  first  met — met,  I  mean,  to 
know  each  other  at -all  intimately. 

And  yet,  Diary,  to  you,  most  indulgent  of  listeners  as 
I  feel  sure  you  are,  I  must  confide  one  more  suspicion. 
In  spite  of  the  man's  brightened  eyes  and  color,  his 
livelier  deportment,  and  everything  else  which  would 
point  toward  mental  buoyancy,  I  fancied,  once  or 
twice  this  evening,  that  he  bore  the  outward  stamp  of 
some  inward  worriment,  and — 

He  is  not  worth  all  this  flattering  dissection  on  my 
part.  What  are  we  to  each  other  that  I  should  lavish 
nice  white  paper  upon  him  to  such  an  exorbitant 
extent  ?  We  talked  together  unmolestedly  for  about 
three  hours  after  he  joined  me  at  the  piano.  There  is 
the  unvarnished  fact,  my  dear  Diary  ;  all  that  you  cared 
to  hear,  doubtless,  and  all  that  it  was  really  necessary 
to  supply  you  with. 

At  least  two  of  those  hours,  I  suppose,  were  purga- 
torial to  Melville  Delano  ;  for  mamma  arose  and  went 
away  when  the  photographic  salt  had  lost  its  savor  and 
the  notable  personages  had  been  shut  up  and  replaced 
upon  the  sitting-room  table.  I  think  he  wanted  me  to 
believe  that  Selina  was  endurable,  after  they  were  alone 
together  ;  for  there  was  a  kind  of  obstinate  made-to- 
order  smile  on  his  lips,  as  I  discovered  by  occasional 


24  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

glances  in  his  direction,  and  the  persistence  with  which 
his  eyes  refused  to  wander  pianoward  would  have  been 
a  shining  example  for  Lot's  wife. 

He  tried,  when  we  separated,  to  look  as  if  Selina  had 
been  a  mere  trifle  and  he  hadn't  minded  her  a  bit.  In 
this  attempt  I  cannot  say  that  he  met  with  absolute 
success.  When  I  shook  hands  for  good-night  with  him 
(Selina  standing  by  and  smiling  that  horribly  dental 
smile  of  hers,  which  is  enough  to  paralyze  the  most 
energetic  clock  conceivable)  I  endeavored  to  make  my 
hand  say  pleasant  things  about  to-morrow.  I  mean  to 
keep  the  manual  promise,  too,  though  perhaps  he  did 
not  understand  it  as  such. 

To  my  deep  relief  it  has  been  discovered  that  Selina 
is  not  at  all  nervous  in  the  matter  of  sleeping  alone.  In 
truth,  she  prefers  it.  I  am  of  course  grateful  for  the 
circumstance ;  but  then  it  is  a  fact  that  the  more  one 
becomes  used  to  her  the  less  dread  one  has  of  being 
left  alone  with  her  in  the  dark. 

Yes,  I  am  going  to  be  very  civil  to  Melville  Delano 
to-morrow  morning.  That  is,  if  mamma  permits. 


CHAPTER  III. 

|EPT.  24. — But  mamma  hasn't  permitted  yet, 
and  it  is  now  "to-morrow"  at  bed-time;  and 
every  word  which  I  write  in  you,  by  the  way, 
dear  Diary,  is  a  scandalous  violation  of  my  duty  as  a 
keeper  of  respectable  hours. 

Wherefore  I  shall  go  through  the  day's  events  at  a 
mild  gallop,  if  you  don't  object.  In  the  morning,  be^ 
tween  breakfast  and  church,  I  made  an  attempt  to  enjoy 
a  little  of  Melville  Delano's  unadulterated  companion- 
ship on  the  hall-lounge.  I  began  conversation  with  a 
reference  to  his  pitiable  captivity  of  last  night.  "No 
doubt  you  found  Miss  Matthers  the  pinnacle  of  bores," 
I  went  on  ;  "  but  unfortunately,  you  know,  the  poor 
girl  must  be  entertained  whilst  she  is  here.  I  was  very 
sorry.  You  and  Mr.  Dobell  will  have  to  alternate  in 
the  casting  of  your  pearls  before — I  won't  say  what — 
from  day  to  day.  That  will  be  only  fair,  will  it  not  ?  " 
And  as  I  laughed  he  laughed  too,  his  face  gaining  all 
the  pleasant  characteristic  light  which  I  had  fancied  that 
it  had  lacked  during  breakfast.  After  that  we  fell  to 
talking  together  in  the  old  easeful  intimate  way,  and 
were  just  beginning  to  get  on  charmingly  when  mamma, 
emergent  from  I  cannot  say  precisely  where,  made  the 
statement  that  it  was  time  to  dress  for  church. 
2 


26  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

It  was  not  time,  and  I  knew  it,  and  moreover  I  knew 
that  mamma  knew  it.  But  one  could  guess  without  dif- 
ficulty from  mamma's  "  Find  Selina,  my  dear,  and  take 
her  upstairs  with  you,"  that  Mr.  Dobell  was  somewhere 
in  Selina's  clutches. 

She  had  made  a  harpylike  pounce,  probably,  as  we 
left  the  breakfast-room,  for  I  found  herself  and  victim 
in  its  immediate  neighBorhood.  It  was  not  hard  work 
to  part  them  :  no  tearing  asunder  was  necessary.  I 
fancy  she  has  already  formed  a  rapid  preference  in  favor 
of  Melville.  It  would  seem  as  if  Fate  smiled  upon 
mamma's  dark  designs. 

During  the  drive  to  church  (mamma  did  not  go,  by 
the  way,  because  of  there  being  a  carriage-load  without 
her),  I  made  the  alarming  discovery  that  Selina  could 
babble  much  more  copiously  than  we  had  yet  heard 
her,  and  during  the  return-drive  matters  had  even  be- 
come worse.  This  girl  is  an  irrefutable  nuisance.  She 
seems  to  have  fallen  quite  in  love  with  poor  Melville, 
who  bears  his  misfortune  with  the  dignity  of  a  thorough 
gentleman. 

After  our  return,  mamma  secured  Melville  until  it  was 
certain  that  Mr.  Dobell  had  permanently  attached  him- 
self to  me  :  then  she  treacherously  retired  in  favor  of 
Selina.  Melville's  visit  is  being  ruined  ;  I  don't  believe 
he  will  stand  a  week  of  this  sort  of  thing.  He  would  be 
insane  to  do  so,  I  should  fancy. 

Mr.  Dobell  and  I  have  been  almost  uninterruptedly 
together  throughout  the  whole  day.  There  is  no  use  of 
my  trying  to  put  down  what  I  think.  I  don't  know, 
indeed,  whether  I  think  anything.  I  am  very  confused 
— very  surprised.  If  Newport  was  a  flirtation,  what  is 
Pineside  ? 

Mamma  met  me  at  the  door  of  her  room  to-night,  as 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2/ 

I  passed  it  after  having  disposed  of  Selina  until  to-mor- 
row morning.  She  made  me  a  sign  that  I  was  to  go  in 
and  be  talked  to  for  a  few  minutes.  I  immediately  took 
a  kind  of  memorial  scamper  across  the  day's  proceed- 
ings, and  by  the  time  that  I  was  in  flesh  crossing  the 
maternal  threshold,  in  spirit  I  was  using  the  breakfast- 
table  as  a  post  whence  to  sweep  swift  intelligent  birds'- 
eyes  over  all  which  had  occurred  since  morning.  The 
result  of  this  brisk  mental  proceeding  was  satisfactory 
enough.  No  spire  of  misconduct  lifted  itself  from  the 
level  of  obedience  which  met  my  gaze.  No  ;  it  could 
not  be  possible  that  mamma  was  going  to  scold. 

As  she  turned  and  faced  me,  after  closing  the  door, 
her  demeanor  justified  me  in  feeling  convinced  that  she 
was  not  going  to  scold.  And  her  words,  when  she 
spoke,  were  veritably  not  of  a  scolding  character. 

"I  think  the  two  enemies  get  along  very  well  to- 
gether ;  don't  you,  Helen  ?  " 

"They  are  not  a  great  deal  together,"  I  objected, 
with  much  meekness.  "I  think  they  are  kept  apart 
rather  successfully,  if  you  mean  that,  mamma." 

"  We  won't  split  hairs,"  she  smiled,  instead  of  frown- 
ing it,  as  I  had  half-expected  her  to  do.  "  Your  con- 
duct, my  daughter,  has  been  in  every  manner  satisfac- 
tory." 

Doubtless  I  ought  to  have  tingled  to  the  finger-nails, 
as  most  good  and  faithful  serv — I  mean  daughters, 
would  have  done  under  similar  circumstances.  But  I 
didn't  tingle,  somehow.  "You  mean  about  Mr.  Do- 
bell,  mamma?  " 

"  Yes,  my  dear."  She  came  very  close  to  me  then, 
and  took  my  hand.  The  touch  of  her  own  hand  was 
like  what  her  words  were — a  mixture  of  softness  and 
firmness.  Her  penetrant  eyes  searched  my  face.  I 


28  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

wanted  to  get  away.  I  only  remember  her  having  once 
before  secured  me  in  these  manual  and  ocular  manners 
both  together  :  it  was  a  long  time  ago,  and  I  was  a  mere 
child.  But  a  mere  child  then  that  wanted  to  get  away, 
just  as  I  was  a  big  creature  and  wanted  to  get  away  to- 
night. 

"  You  are  a  quick  bright  girl  at  most  things,  Helen. 
You  must  have  noticed  what  I  have  desired  you  to  notice 
— and  act  upon.  But  the  acting  upon  it,  of  course, 
would  necessitate  your  being  an  obedient  girl  as  well." 
Her  disengaged  hand  had  stolen  up  into  my  hair,  now, 
and  was  pushing  it  back  from  my  forehead. 

"I  hope  I  am  obedient,  mamma,"  was  the  effort 
which  I  made,  presently,  to  fill  what  had  grown  a  keenly 
awkward  silence. 

"  So  do  I."  By  this  time  her  arm  was  about  my 
neck.  The  action  was  tender  indisputably — and  mamma 
performed  it.  I  should  be  much  amazed  to  encounter 
in  some  Austrian  history  the  fact  of  Maria  Theresa  hav- 
ing caused,  during  a  moment  of  mental  alienation,  the 
throne  of  the  Hapsburgs  to  tremble  beneath  a  pigeon's- 
wing ;  still,  events  can  be  imagined  which  would  sur- 
prise me  more  ;  and  at  least  until  this  evening  one  of 
these  events  was  anything  resembling  a  show  of  tender- 
ness on  mamma's  part.  "  But  there  are  such  things  as 
knights  with  bloodless  swords  and  virgin  shields,"  she 
loitered  on,  murmurously.  "  I  don't  think,  dear,  your 
full  powers  of  obedience  have  ever  been  proven  yet. 
Have  they?" 

I  gave  a  kind  of  nervous  laugh  at  this :  it  was  be- 
cause those  dark  unvarying  eyes  of  hers  fluttered  me,  I 
suppose.  "  Gracious,  you're  very  allegoric,  I  should 
say.  I  don't  know,  surely."  After  that  I  plucked  up 
a  little  courage  :  it  seems  so  inane  for  a  great  girl  like 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2Q 

me  always  to  stand  in  such  awe  of  a  mother.  "  If 
you'll  allow  honest  candor,  mamma,  I  think  we  may  as 
well  use  it  toward  one  another." 

"  Right."  The  little  word  rang  clearly  through  the 
still  room,  as  she  dropped  my  hand  and  left  off  being 
affectionate  in  the  region  of  my  neck  and  shoulders. 
"  Let  it  be  simple  A,  B,  C  between  us,  Helen.  I  want 
you  to  marry  Fuller  Dobell.  There  are  no  men  in  New 
York  (except  one  or  two,  perhaps  ;  and  those  are  un- 
reachable)  whom  I  more  greatly  want  you  to  marry. 
You  have  heard  idle  stories  about  him  ;  believe  them  or 
not,  just  as  you  please,  but  don't  let  them  prejudice  you 
against  the  man,  howsoever  slightly.  It  is  of  no  im- 
portance what  a  man's  life  has  been  before  marriage. 
Very  often  the  married  reprobate  will  make  the  model 
husband — if  it  were  a  question  with  you  of  model  hus- 
bands or  their  opposites  ;  which  it  is  not.  You  marry 
in  a  world  where  the  connubial  chain  isn't  always  worn 
precisely  like  a  fetter  ;  "—a  light  low  laugh  ending  this 
sentence.  "  We  needn't  inquire,  either,  whether  Fuller 
Dobell  has  lost  his  money  or  no.  You  have  nothing,  it 
is  true,  but  I  have  much  ;  and  out  of  that  plenitude  there 
shall  be  spared  to  you  all  you  need  until  some  day  when 
you  shall  possess  it  in  entirety,  no  doubt ;  so  that  even  if 
poor  himself,  he  should  have  no  moneyless  woman  for 
his  bride  when  he  married  you." 

"  And  you  think  he  is  going  to  marry  me,  mamma?  " 

"  He  is  going,  if  I  can  make  him." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  My  words  came  sharp  and 
harsh.  Years  of  allegiance  and  obeisance  were  forgot- 
ten in  them.  For  the  moment  it  was  somehow  no 
longer  the  woman  of  whom  I  have  stood  in  perpetual 
fear  and  reverence,  no  longer  mamma  the  august  and 
formidable,  but  rather  some  voice  that  had  spoken  forth 


30  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

a  stinging  prophecy  of  my  own  future  humiliation.  This 
thought  had  flashed  through  my  mind  with  only  a 
thought's  fleetness  : —  TJiere  is  to  be  some  bold  horrible 
attempt  made,  wJiich  shall  more  than  cheapen  you  in 
Fuller  DobelVs  eyes.  And  I  had  answered  what  impulse 
had  commanded,  forgetting  the  potentate  whom  I  ad- 
dressed :  just  as  though  some  lady-in-waiting,  taken  by 
surprise  with  a  monarchical  box  on  the  ear,  should  let 
the  aural  twinge  corrupt  her  loyalty  to  the  extent  of  an 
impetuous  tit-for-tat.  But  a  few  seconds  after  the 
words  were  spoken  I  was  trembling  with  the  thought  of 
their  audacity. 

Mamma  looked  thunderstruck,  at  first ;  then  her  eye- 
brows were  haughtily  lifted  as  I  have  seen  them  more 
than  once.  I  expected  something  blood-curdling  in  the 
way  of  a  rebuke,  and  stood  waiting  for  it.  But  only 
this  came  : 

"  Do  you  believe  me  capable  of  disgracing  you  in  the 
matter,  Helen  ?  It  is  easy  to  guess  your  thought  be- 
hind your  question." 

The  eye-brows  had  lowered  themselves.  I  saw  to  my 
amazement  that  her  face  bore  no  traces  of  anger.  Some 
spiritual  zephyr  of  the  balmiest  character  conceivable 
had  blown  away  every  tempestuous  sign.  Had  it  sprung 
from  amiability  or  from  policy,  this  genial  annihilator  ? 
From  the  latter,  I  am  disposed  to  suspect.  People  do 
not  act  at  a  moment's  notice  contrary  to  their  most 
prominent  personal  traits  without  some  decisive  reason 
therefor. 

My  amazement  did  not  prevent  me  from  murmuring 
a  prompt  apology.  "  Pray  excuse  me,  mamma.  Of 
course  you  must  understand  that  the  idea  of  his  learning 
what  you  desire  would  be  painfully  mortifying  to  me." 
Then  I  acted  as  if  making  the  carpet  a  very  important 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  31 

confidence.  "  It  is  true — that  is,  there  doesn't  seem  to 
be  any  doubt  just  now  in  my  own  mind,"  I  floundered, 
"as  to  whether  I  would  refuse  him,  you  know.  There's 
nobody  whom  I  have  ever  liked  better,  so  far." 

Mamma's  face  lit  up  with  its  most  brilliant  smile,  then. 
By  the  way,  how  handsome  a  smile  makes  her  !  ' '  Helen, 
you  are  certain  of  success,  in  that  case.  I  have  reason 
to  feel  sure  that  he  will  offer  himself  in  a  day  or  two." 

"  Has  he  said  anything  to  you  about  it  ?  "  I  flashed, 
eagerly. 

"No."  The  negative  was  quickly  given,  and  then 
came  a  little  pause.  "  But  there  are  means  of  judging 
to  one  who  knows  the  world  as  I  know  it."  She  came 
close  to  me  now,  and  kissed  me  in  her  usual  business- 
like way.  "  Good-night,  my  dear  ;  you  had  better  go 
to  bed  at  once.  I  have  probably  done  wrong  in  excit- 
ing you  at  such  an  hour." 

"You  haven't  excited  me,"  I  softly  contradicted. 
Fixing  my  eyes  upon  her  face,  I  went  on  :  "  Promise 
me,  mamma,  that  under  no  circumstances  will  you  drop 
the  slightest  hint  to  Fuller  Dobell— " 

Her  hand,  raised  imperiously,  made  me  pause  there. 
And  her  face  had  darkened  irefully  indeed,  now  ;  look- 
ing beyond  the  power  of  any  sudden  facial  summer  to 
thaw  its  frigidity.  "I  hold  it  to  be  an  impertinence 
that  you  should  again  touch  upon  such  a  subject. 
Whilst  our  interests  are  common  interests,  I  should  at 
least  be  trusted  with  the  guardianship  of  your  respecta- 
bility." 

"But,  mamma,  I — " 

Up  went  the  imperious  hand,  as  if  ascending  with 
little  jerky  steps  a  little  airy  stairway. 

"  Leave  the  room,  please." 

I  left. 


32  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Well,  for  once  it  has  paid  to  have  mamma  treat  me 
with  the  same  demolishing  lack  of  ceremony  usually  re- 
ceived by  a  caterpillar  which  goes  where  it  oughtn't  to 
go.  I  have  made  sure  that  her  desire  to  bring  about  a 
certain  event  will  not  result  in  anything  that  I  should 
think  of  with  a  shudder  of  mortification  ;  unless,  indeed, 
her  indignation  was  a  sort  of  mask,  and  I  am  inclined  to 
think  no  on  this  point.  Mamma  is  zealous  enough,  but 
her  zeal  will  never  carry  her  beyond  the  bounds  of  a 
certain  politic  propriety. 

Her  worldly  wishes  regarding  the  man  make  her 
more  hopeful  than  my  unworldly  wishes  make  me.  If 
he  offered  himself  to-morrow,  I  should  marvel  besides 
rejoicing.  She  would  rejoice  and  not  marvel  greatly,  I 
rather  fancy. 

Whence  springs  her  apparent  confidence  in  my  suc- 
cess ?  (Bold,  scheming  thing  that  I  seem  like,*to  use 
the  horrid  Becky-Sharpish  word  !)  Does  it  spring  from 
any  hidden  reserve-power  ?  But  what  hidden  reserve- 
power  could  she  possibly  have  ? 

Yes,  what  they  call  a  downright  offer  would  surprise 
me  hugely.  And  yet  how  many  girls  in  my  situation 
would  have  triple  my  hopefulness  !  But  then  veteran 
flirts  are  such  eels  in  the  way  of  reliability.  I  have  not 
forgotten  John  -  Driscoll  and  those  first  three  months 
after  I  went  into  society,  though  mamma  warned  me 
there,  and  it  was  a  little  game  in  the  playing  of  which  I 
had  consequently  a  cool  clear  head.  Then,  too,  there 
was  after  all  no  great  need  to  warn.  John  Driscoll  is  a 
charming  man,  but  I  doubt  whether  he  would  not  under 
any  circumstances  have  left  me  as  he  found  me— heart- 
whole.  Now,  however,  mamma  encourages,  pushes  on, 
and  now  her  encouragement  is  as  little  needed  as  was 
her  warning  of  other  days. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


33 


Why? 

I'd  write  the  answer  in  invisible  ink,  Diary,  if  only  I 
possessed  some  of  that  phantasmal  commodity.  What 
a  pretty  way  of  telling  you  a  real  secret,  by  the  bye — 
one  which  any  mischievous  character  might  not,  after 
addressing  my  desk  in  the  persuasive  terms  of  a  skeleton 
key,  presumptuously  read.  But  pshaw  !  you  have  heard 
my  stumbling  admission  to  mamma.  A  diary  of  your 
intelligence  can  readily  imagine  how  florid,  not  to  say 
torrid,  those  unseen  sentences  would  prove.  A  word 
to  the  wise,  you  know. 
2* 


CHAPTER  IV. 

|EPT.  25. — To-day  was  rainy  again.  I  have 
spent  nearly  the  whole  day  with  Fuller  Dobell 
in  the  library.  Melville  Delano  has  made  up 
his  mind  to  leave  to-morrow  afternoon.  He  broke  this 
piece  of  news  to  me  during  a  few  words  Avhich  we  held 
together  after  dinner.  He  assures  me  that  his  depart- 
ure is  a  necessity  ;  but  I  doubt  the  truth  of  this.  How 
can  one  blame  him  for  running  away  from  Salina  ? 

I  like  Melville  Delano  with  all  my  heart.  I  know 
that  he  detests  Fuller  Dobell ;  I  know  that  he  feels  him- 
self grossly  maltreated  ;  I  know  that  he  is  fond  of  me  ; 
and  yet  not  one  word  of  bitterness  left  the  man's  lips 
whilst  we  spoke  together.  Perhaps  he  believes  that  my 
apparent  preference  is  all  the  result  of  maternal  com- 
mand, and  that  I  am  in  truth  more  deserving  of  pity 
than  he  is.  It  would  be  much  better  if  he  really  had 
some  such  opinion  of  the  matter,  poor  fellow  !  And  it 
wouldn't  be  wholly  a  wrong  opinion,  either.  Mamma 
does  make  me  behave  as  I  am  behaving — only  I  find  it 
very  agreeable  indeed  to  obey  her.  There  would  be  fell 
hypocrisy  in  my  making  mouths  over  currant-jelly,  and 
treating  it  like  castor-oil,  even  though  it  is  administered 
in  medicinal  form. 

I   appreciate  Melville  Delano's  disappointment  pro- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


35 


foundly.  He  had  no  doubt  been  promising  himself 
vast  enjoyment  during  this  visit,  all  through  the  sum- 
mer. When  we  last  saw  each  other  in  town,  I  had 
hardly  spoken  twenty  words  to  Fuller  Dobell  in  all  my 
lifetime ;  now  Melville  comes  to  Pineside,  and  finds 
me  on  intimate  terms  with  his  pet  aversion,  and  must 
watch  me  disappear  into  retired  nooks  and  corners, 
leaving  him  for  consolation  a  chatterer  with  astonishing 
teeth.  It  is  very  hard. 

When  I  recall,  however,  the  gloomy  manners  which 
he  wore  on  Saturday  evening  and  on  Sunday  morning, 
the  conviction  forces  itself  upon  me  that  only  one  kind 
of  salve  has  healed  his  wound  with  such  unexampled 
rapidity — the  salve  of  conceit.  Yes,  he  is  confident 
that  I  act  merely  from  motives  of  blind  obedience  to 
mamma's  will.  And  how  mamma  must  be  anathema- 
tized in  his  private  thoughts,  by  the  way  ! 

I  have  not  yet  told  her  that  Melville  is  going  to-mor- 
row. No  doubt  she  will  insist  upon  his  remaining,  on 
Selina's  account.  I  wonder  whether  Melville  would  go 
at  the  risk  of  offending  her  ?  I  should  fancy  yes ; 
Melville  Delano  has  nothing  of  the  time-server  about 
him,  notwithstanding  his  commercial  struggles  and 
those  three  dragging  sisters.  And  this  reminds  me  of 
how  he  has  begun  to  treat  Fuller  Dobell  ;  there  is  no 
more  smoking  together  after  wre  leave  the  dinner-table. 
"  I  shall  not  smoke,  thanks,"  Melville  announced  this 
evening,  passing  from  the  room  when  mamma  and 
Selina  and  I  retired  from  it,  and  leaving  Fuller  Dobell 
to  make  the  dining-room  nebulous  in  tobacconalian 
solitude.  Don't  men  usually  prefer  the  cigar  of  cer- 
tain moments  to  almost  anything  else  of  things  ter- 
restrial ?  And  isn't  there  something  truly  horrible  in 
the  fact  of  one  man  hating  another,  so  to  phrase  it,  a 


36  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

whole  after-dinner  cigar's  worth  ?  Perhaps  if  I  knew 
more  about  smoking — had  ever  gone  into  clandestine 
cigarettes,  like  some  girls,  for  instance — I  might  confi- 
dently answer  these  questions. 

Mamma  has  given  me  incidentally  applausive  looks 
whenever  we  have  met  throughout  the  day.  I  don't 
see,  for  my  part,  why  I  deserve  to  be  treated  as  if  I 
were  going  the  way  of  all  duteous  daughters.  Even 
viewing  the  matter  from  mamma's  standpoint,  my 
obedience  consists  in  nothing  except  sitting  still  and 
being  talked  deliciously  to. 

He  does  talk  deliciously.  One  might  define  his  con- 
versation as  a  mellifluous  stream  of  nothing  remarkable. 
He  isn't  clever.  I  said  so  at  Newport,  and  I  repeat  it 
now.  He  isn't  fit  to  tie  the  latchet  of  John  Driscoll's 
intellectual  shoes — or  of  Melville  Delano's  either.  I 
always  believed  that  I  should  fall  in  love  with  a  very 
clever  man.  How  odd  that  I  haven't,  after  all ! 

But  then  he  is  never  stupid.  In  fact,  I  do  not  think 
that  with  his  deep  rich-colored  eyes  upon  me,  and  with 
his  tuneful  mellow  voice  near  me,  chimpanzees  or  even 
hippopotami  would  seem  at  all  like  undesirable  topics. 
Everything  that  he  says  is  of  interest,  somehow,  not 
(as  I  don't  hesitate  a  single  moment  to  confess)  because 
there  is  really  much  ia  it,  but  because — 

Oh,  gracious  !  because  he  is  charming.  It  is  some- 
times a  colossal  bore  to  be  logical,  Diary  dear. 


CHAPTER  V. 

]EPT.  26. — How  much  of  the  odd  and  unlooked- 
for  has  happened  to-day  ! 

This  morning  was  a  return  of  the  perfect 
autumn  weather.  Everybody  seemed  in  sparkling 
spirits  when  we  met  at  breakfast ;  even  mamma's  grave 
stateliness  was  touched  with  mirth,  now  and  then,  like 
bright  broidery  about  the  edges  of  some  sombre  robe. 
Melville  Delano,  who  had  the  least  excuse  of  anybody 
for  being  merry,  turned  more  than  once  toward  the 
prattling  Selina  and  looked  her  bravely  in  the  teeth,  and 
smiled,  and  was  strong. 

After  breakfast  I  proposed  croquet.  Acquiescence 
was  universal,  and  we  sought  the  lawn.  Mr.  Dobell 
asked  me  rather  loudly,  so  that  all  heard  him,  to  be  his 
partner,  just  as  we  reached  the  ground.  "  Certainly," 
I  assented ;  and  so  the  division  was  made  of  Mr.  Do- 
bell  and  me  against  Melville  and  Selina. 

My  partrter  and  I  succeeded  nicely,  both  of  us  play- 
ing very  much  after  the  same  theory.  Occasionally  his 
ideas  were  at  fault,  but  he  isn't  vainglorious  as  regards 
his  game,  nor  adamantine  in  the  matter  of  following 
suggestions.  It  is  not  necessary,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
delay  the  game  with  polite  pleading  or  argument  when 
you  play  with  him,  or  yet  on  the  other,  with  laborious 


38  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

explanations  of  what  you  feel  certain  is  the  proper  shot. 
Altogether,  I  think  we  may  be  called  sweetly  harmoni- 
ous in  croquet.  If,  however,  there  is  a,  shade  of  superi- 
ority possessed  by  either,  I  am  the  fortunate  owner.  I 
think  also  that  he  understands  this,  and  suggests  my 
superiority  in  a  nice,  delicate  way,  by  no  means  cum- 
bersomely  reverential. 

But  Melville  eclipses  us  both.  His  eye  is  straighter, 
his  hand  is  steadier,  his  shots  are  surer.  He  is  infalli- 
ble, too,  on  the  subject  of  who  plays  next  and  who  does 
not  play  next.  If  he  had  had  an  ordinary  partner,  let 
us  say,  the  game  might  have  been  fine  fun.  His  part- 
ner, on  the  contrary,  was  very  extraordinary  indeed. 
She  garrulously  preluded  her  first  shot  by  more  than  a 
single  statement  to  the  effect  that  she  was  a  beginner 
and  "deserved  to  have  loads  of  allowances  made,  you 
know."  We  were  all  willing,  and  expressed  our  willing- 
ness, to  strew  her  path  with  the  roses  of  extreme  in- 
dulgence in  the  matter  of  making  such  allowances. 
Our  offers  were  appreciatively  answered  by  a  nervous 
giggle  ;  and  with  her  body  bent  in  painful  curvature 
and  both  hands  grasping  her  mallet-handle  as  though 
it  were  the  proverbial  straw  beloved  of  the  proverbial 
drowning  man,  Miss  Matthers,  after  what  appeared 
supreme  physical  effort,  faintly  tapped  her  ball  and 
made  it  roll  perhaps  ten  inches.  She  was  cordially 
asked  to  try  over  again,  as  soon  as  our  surprise  at  the 
mountain's  immense  groan  and  the  poor  wee  mouse  of 
which  it  had  been  delivered,  made  speech  possible. 
The  second  attempt  was  the  merest  phantom  of  an  im- 
provement on  the  first.  We  might  have  pitied  her, 
t>ut  bared  by  a  broad  self-satisfied  grin  the  teeth 
gleamed  defiance  at  all  commiseration.  Throughout 
the  remainder  of  the  game,  she  was  just  a  ponderous  stone 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  39 

round  poor  Melville's  neck,  although  to  her  own  think- 
ing she  was  doubtless  no  more  than  would  have  been  a 
rose  in  his  button-hole.  All  his  exquisite  skill  at  as- 
sistance was  thrown  away  upon  her  headlong  blunder- 
ing. If  he  put  her  ball  so  that  a  breath  would  almost 
send  it  through  its  wicket,  and  the  judgment  of  a 
chicken  might  settle  upon  the  force  required  for  its  pro- 
pulsion, the  result  was  sure  to  be  something  aj)out  as 
violently  zigzag  as  human  power  can  attain.  Consid- 
ering Melville's  love  for  croquet,  his  gentle  patience 
under  such  an  exasperating  drawback  gave  to  his  game 
a  flavor  of  real  old  fifteenth-century  martyrdom.  We 
beat  Selina  by  many  wickets — him  by  only  one. 

It  was  on  the  end  of  my  tongue,  when  this  game  was 
finished,  to  suggest  that  Melville  and  I  should  now  play 
against  Mr.  Dobell  and  Selina ;  but  somehow  I  didn't 
make  the  proposition.  "  Shall  we  have  another?" 
noised  Miss  Matthers,  brazenly.  "  I  like  it  so  much! 
I'd  no  idea  that  it  was  so  nice.  I  must  always  before 
have  played  with  bad  players,  and  never  really  gotten 
into  the  spirit  of  it,  you  see." 

"  I,  for  one,  admit  to  being  wearied  a  little,"  Mel- 
ville Delano  announced,  meditatively  injuring  our 
trim-shaven  lawn  with  his  mallet — which,  by  the  bye, 
ought  to  have  brought  forth  buds  and  bloomed  blos- 
soms, like  Aaron's  rod,  as  a  sign  that  the  tutelar  genius 
of  croquet  had  seen  and  pitied  its  wielder's  patience  and 
long-suffering. 

Selina  pouted  repulsively  whilst  I  was  turning  to  see 
what  Andrew  wanted,  that  domestic  having  just  made 
his  appearance  on  the  croquet-ground.  Andrew  wanted 
to  give  Mr.  Dobell  a  letter  which  somebody  had  re- 
cently brought  over  from  the  hotel.  Mr.  Dobell  was 
standing  at  my  right,  and  Andrew  stood  at  my  left ;  it 


40  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

was  consequently  quite  natural  for  me  to  receive  the 
letter  and  pass  it  to  the  owner  ;  quite  natural  was  it, 
also,  for  me  to  sweep  my  eye  over  the  superscription, 
whilst  acting  as  this  sort  of  postal  medium  between 
Andrew  and  my  guest :  curious  if  you  please,  Diary, 
but  not  unwarrantably  so.  Andrew  had  stated  that  the 
letter  was  for  Mr.  Dobell,  but  handwriting  is  handwrit- 
ing, and  the  scholarship  of  Andrews  in  general  is  not 
unassailable,  as  everybody  knows. 

This  handwriting  shaped  the  name  of  Fuller  Dobell, 
in  lines  of  lovely  flowing  gracefulness  :  my  swift  eye- 
sweep  told  me  thus  much.  "  Indisputably  a  woman's 
hand,"  I  had  decided  to  myself,  before  that  which  was 
Caesar's  had  been  rendered  unto  Caesar.  He  took  it 
rather  wonderingly,  stared  at  it  rather  surprisedly,  and 
glanced  up  at  me  with  courteous  appeal.'  "  Have  I 
your  permission  to  open  ?  " 

Being  permitted,  he  opened.  Of  course,  I  looked 
away — walking  away  also.  Of  course,  too,  I  was  won- 
dering from  whom  at  the  hotel  the.  note  had  come. 
Lots  of  people  are  there  during  the  summer — a  verita- 
ble social  hodge-podge,  in  fact,  of  somebodies  or  worse 
than  nobodies ;  but  now,  at  this  late  September  day,  I 
had  imagined  that  nearly  everybody  was  gone,  the  fickle 
multitude  being  usually  known  to  depart  at  the  first 
cold  dewfall  or  so,  and  long  before  Autumn  has  begun 
her  operations  among  the  leaves  with  that  "  fiery  fin- 
ger "  that  Tennyson  tells  us  about. 

He  began  speaking,  presently,  and  then  I  looked 
round  again.  "  Is  it  settled  that  we  are  not  to  play  any 
more,  Miss  Helen  ?  "  He  was  re-wedding  the  sundered 
envelope  and  paper,  by  this  time.  "  I  feel  quite  ready 
for  another  game." 

"  You  heard  Mr.  Delano,  did  you  not  ?"  I  shoulder- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  4I 

shrugged,  rather  coolly.  Sharing  the  common  feminine 
doom  of  being  one  of  Eve's  distant  relations,  it  wasn't 
out-and-out  bliss  for  me  to  see  him  put  the  envelope 
into  his  pocket  and  so  dismiss  all  further  thought,  appa- 
rently, of  from  whom  it  had  come.  But,  of  course,  I 
was  just  an  idiot  to  show  my  disappointment. 

"I  will  play  to  oblige  you,  Miss  Helen,"  Melville 
hastened  to  state,  and  so  pointedly  that  I  saw  Mr.  Do- 
bell's  brown  moustache  abruptly  lapse  over  his  lower 
lip,  as  though  something  was  biting  something  else  in 
the  convenient  ambuscade  thus  formed.  After  a  second 
of  silence  the  same  speaker  went  on:  "You  know  I 
leave  to-day.  Would  it  matter  at  all  if  I  were  to  take 
the  half-past  twelve,  by  the  bye,  instead  of  the  two 
o'clock,  as  I  suggested  last  night?  " 

"Oh,  no,  not  at  all!"  and  I  fixed  my  eyes  very 
steadily  on  Melville  Delano's  face,  after  saying  this,  and 
tried  to  make  them  tell  him  that  his  going  was  a  misera- 
ble shame.  Then,  aloud  :  "  I  will  order  you  an  earlier 
lunch,  if  your  plans  are  changed." 

"  Thanks  very  much."  We  had  gotten  together,  by 
this  time,  and  he  spoke  in  lowered  tones.  "  But  I 
shan't  need  any  lunch.  I  shall  reach  town  a  little  after 
two,  you  know." 

"  I  haven't  told  mamma  that  you  are  going  yet,"  I 
hesitated,  annihilating  a  leaf,  nervously.  "  I'm  afraid 
she  will  be  quite  averse  to  your  departure." 

"  I  don't  doubt  it :  on  Miss  Matthers'  account,  possi- 
bly," he  muttered,  neither  a  smile  nor  a  sneer  gaining 
exactly  the  mastery  on  his  face,  but  both  manifestly 
contending  there.  "  I  am  going  into  the  house  now. 
Shall  I  find  her,  and  break  the  momentous  tidings  ?  " 

" Must  he  go  to-day?"  whined  Selina  indelicately, 
approaching  me  almost  before  he  had  left  the  ground. 


42  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Her  pout  was  now  among  things  forgotten.     "  Do  per- 
suade him  to  stay." 

"Perhaps  you  could  perform  that  task  with  better 
success  than  anybody  else,"  I  lied,  amiably.  Conscience 
must  shrivel  before  hostess-ship,  as  every  one  is  aware. 

Selina  grinned  a  bashful  grin,  the  awful  dental  disclo- 
sures of  which  I  can  compare  to  nothing  except  the  sea 
giving  up  its  dead.  "Pshaw!  you  horrible  girl!  I 
don't  believe  it  a  bit !  "  Then  I  was  smitten  on  the 
shoulder  with  tender  violence,  as  a  punishment,  doubt- 
less, for  being  so  horrible  and  so  unworthy  of  credence. 

We  strolled  toward  the  house,  presently,  Selina  trip- 
ping buoyantly  along  at  quite  a  distance  from  Mr.  Do- 
bell  and  me,  still  under  the  happy  spell,  probably,  of 
my  recent  mendacious  compliment. 

"  Shall  you  object  to  having  me  leave  you  for  a  little 
while  this  afternoon  ?  "  my  companion  abruptly  ques- 
tioned, as  we  walked  along.  "That  is,  do  you  mind 
lending  me  a  horse  and  wagon,  and  letting  me  do  what 
I  want  with  them,  say  from  about  two  until  dinner- 
time ?  " 

"  Certainly  not,"  I  laughed.  Mother  Eve  may  have 
been  my  progenitress,  but  I  chose  to  remember  just 
then  that  she  was  a  remote  one,  and  disclose  not  an  iota 
of  curiosity.  If  he  cared  to  reveal  the  whither  of  his 
proposed  journey,  which  had  much  to  do,  of  course, 
with  the  envelope  Andrew  had  recently  brought,  why, 
let  him  do  so.  Anyhow,  there  was  the  comfortable 
certainty  behind  my  dignified  reticence  that  mamma 
would  want  to  hear  where  he  was  going,  and  most 
probably  succeed  in  finding  out. 

But  his  next  words  dizzied  me  with  surprise  :  "  Would 
it  be  asking  too  much  if  I  asked  you  not  to  mention 
anything  about  my  proposition  to  your  mother?  I 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  43 

heard  her  say  at  breakfast  this  morning  that  she  was 
going  to  drive  twelve  miles  across  country  in  the  after- 
noon, to  Mrs.  ,  Mrs.  Somebody's  house." 

"  Landesdowne."  I  supplied  the  name  mechanically, 
as  it  were.  "  You  don't  want  me  to  tell  mamma,  Mr. 
Dobell !  Do  you  mind  my  saying  that  there  is  some- 
thing quite  glaring  about  the  oddity  of  your  request?  " 

He  gave  his  moustache  one  or  two  energetic  tugs. 
"  Perhaps  when  the  novelty  has  worn  off  you'll  not 
find  it  so  difficult  to  grant.  By  the  way,  I  put  it  to  you 
in  the  form  of  a  very  earnest  request.  You  know  what 
a  universe  of  coaxing  a  child's  'ah,  please'  is  supposed 
to  contain  :  pray  imagine  me  very  juvenile,  and  consider 
that  you  have  been  '  ah-pleased '  a  great  many  times." 

I  knew  him  well  enough  to  see  depths  of  sincerest 
urgency  under  these  trivial  phrases.  If  his  eyes  were 
emphatically  not  <f  each  about  to  have  a  tear,"  his  fore- 
head was  something  a  little  more  than  merely  prophetic 
of  a  frown  :  he  walked  at  my  side,  too,  with  head  path- 
ward,  and  eyes  roaming  somehow  restlessly  anywhere 
except  in  the  direction  of  my  face. 

"Of  course,"  I  assented,  rather  frigidly,  "  you  are 
welcome  to  the  horse  and  wagon.  I  shall  say  nothing 
to  mamma,  since  you  desire  that  I  should  not.  And 
am  I  authorized  to  explain  your  absence  in  the  hearing 
of  anybody  else,  by  the  bye,  or  must  it  remain  a  secret 
between  you,  me,  and  the  coachman  ?  " 

Instantly  his  face  took  a  full  rich  smile.  "  Can't  you 
do  me  a  kindness  without  saying  something  sharp  as  a 
sort  of  counterpoise,  Miss  Helen?  For  I  see  that  you 
have  consented  :  and  since,  consent  being  given,  you 
have  actually  put  the  question,  please  do  let  the  matter 
of  my  disappearance  remain  the  sort  of  secret  you  have 
described  ;  at  least  as  near  as  possible." 


44  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"You  may  rely  upon  me.     But — "     Then  I  paused. 

"But  ?"  he  queried. 

"  Is  thy  servant  an  angel,  that  she  should  do  this  thing 
and  have  no  curiosity  to  learn  wherefore  she  does  it?  " 

"  Wherefore,  Miss  Helen  ?  " 

"  As  Mr.  Booth  remarks  in  Hamlet :  '  Ay,  'twas  my 
word."! 

He  became  abruptly  interested,  at  this,  in  the  picking 
up  of  a  fallen  maple-leaf  that  lay  just  in  our  path ;  a 
scrap  of  gold  and  scarlet  brilliance,  like  the  lovely  little 
leaving  from  some  over-opulent  tropic  sunset.  "  I  am 
afraid  you  have  veritably  put  a  beggar  on  horseback," 
he  murmured.  "  Finish  the  good  work  thoroughly, 
and  don't  ask  wherefore." 

"  But  Selina  Matthers  will  ask." 

He  was  silent  for  a  little  while,  and  then  :  "  On  the 
whole,  I  really  don't  care  very  much  if  she  does." 

"  But  mamma  will  undoubtedly  hear  of  your  absence 
through  tier,  unless  she  is  made  an  accomplice  in  our 
mysterious  little  plot." 

He  laughed  a  soft  unconcerned  laugh.  "She  may 
not  divulge  ;  let  us  hope  for  the  best.  It  isn't  a  plot ; 
pray  think  that  it  isn't.  You  are  doing  me  a  pleasant 
little  favor  ;  that  is  all." 

As  we  entered  the  hall,  mamma  and  Melville  became 
visible  in  conversation  together,  at  one  end  of  it.  "I 
have  persuaded  Mr.  Delano  to  remain  at  least  a  day 
longer,"  she  presently  announced,  coming  forward ; 
whilst  Melville,  not  looking  altogether  like  a  confirma- 
tion of  this  statement,  staid  in  the  background. 

"  Oh,  I'm  real  glad !  "  gushed  Selina,  bringing  both 
hands  together  with  exuberant  girlish  rapture,  and  ex- 
pressing eloquently  with  teeth  the  joy  to  which  words 
seemed  unequal. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


45 


Mamma  started  for  the  Landesdownes'  some  time 
before  the  lunch-hour.  "  It  is  decided  that  Mr.  Delano 
will  not  leave  to-day,"  she  had  augustly  proclaimed, 
addressing  nobody  in  particular — not  even  Melville  him- 
self— a  little  while  before  starting.  I  wondered  what 
potent  spell  she  had  used  to  detain  him.  I  suppose  it 
was  as  much  as  anything  else  the  thought  of  having 
been  persuaded  by  one  who  persuades  so  rarely,  that 
prevented  him  from  going.  Melville  is  not  a  time- 
server,  it  is  true,  nor  a  toady,  nor  a  snob ;  but  when  a 
woman  like  mamma  graciously  stoops  from  her  pedes- 
tal, people  whose  power  isn't  her  power  and  who  stand  a 
grade  or  two  lower  than  she  does,  are  apt  to  feel  a  few 
reverential  tinglings  among  the  dorsal  muscles  furnished 
by  an  all-provident  nature  for  us  to  make  salaams  With. 

It  occurred  to  me  as  soon  as  mamma  was  gone,  that 
now  a  golden  opportunity  offered  itself  for  wiping  out, 
as  far  as  lay  in  my  power,  the  sins  of  omission  com- 
mitted upon  Melville  since  Saturday  last.  And  so,  dur- 
ing a  temporary  absence  of  Mr.  Dobell,  and  whilst 
Selina  had  disappeared  for  the  possible  purpose  of  a 
short  discussion  with  her  mirror,  I  stationed  myself 
syrenwise  in  the  bay-window  and  easily  lured  him  to 
my  side.  After  a  little  while  we  both  concluded  that 
the  privacy  of  our  pleasant  retreat  would  perhaps  be 
violated,  and  by  mutual  consent  the  curtains  were 
loosened,  shutting  us  in  a  lovely  wee  hermitage  of  blue 
silk  and  window-panes  : 

"  You  must  think  me  a  rather  weak  specimen  of  man- 
hood," murmured  my  fellow-recluse,  presently. 

"Because  you  changed  your  mind  about  going  to 
town  ?  Not  I.  But  I  admit  to  having  felt  a  trifle 
annoyed  that  you  should  have  been  such  marble  to  my 
persuasions,  though  such  clay  to  mamma's." 


46  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  saw  the  crimson  color  steal  slowly  into  his  swart 
olive  face.  "  There  is  such  a  thing  as  being  perverse 
for  mere  perversity,  you  know.  Perhaps,  too,  a  rem- 
nant of  my  bitter  feelings  existed  this  morning.  You 
probably  are  not  aware  of  those  feelings." 

"  Certainly  not,"  I  returned,  wide-eyed.  "  Had  I 
done  anything  to  offend?" 

"  I  fancied  you  had."  His  dark  full  eyes  were  fixed 
glowingly  on  my  face.  "  But  it  was  all  fancy,  I  am 
sure.  You  have  not  been  to  blame." 

("  O  vanity  of  man,"  was  my  mute  comment. 
"  How  is  your  own  personality  precious  beyond  rubies 
in  your  own  sight !  ")  But  aloud  : 

"I  think  that  I  guess  what  you  mean."  Then  I 
laughed  a  low  little  conciliatory  laugh.  You  mustn't 
believe  anybody  to  blame.  Mr.  Dobell  was  a  stranger 
at  Pineside  and  not  an  old  acquaintance,  either.  You, 
on  the  other  hand — " 

"  Pshaw !  "  he  broke  in,  brusquely  ;  "  if  I  am  a  friend 
of  long  standing,  as  doubtless  you  were  going  to  say, 
then  I  don't  deserve  being  treated  with  any  paltry  dis- 
guises. -  Either  you  do  or  you  do  not  prefer  Fuller 
Dobell's  society  to  mine  :  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
the  latter  is  most  likely  a  fact.  But  I  suppose  that 
your  excuse  for  inconsistent  behavior,  provided  my 
theory  be  correct,  is  the  soldierly  one  of  having  been 
forced  to  obey  orders." 

I  am  sure  that  my  cheeks  had  each  gotten  a  rose  of 
angriest  crimson,  and  that  my  eyes  were  dancing  very 
briskly  as  I  snapped  out  in  answer : 

"  You've  made  a  ridiculous  mistake,  and  you're  a 
mountain  of  conceit." 

"He  caught  my  arm  with  a  quick  hard  hand. 
You  don't  mean,  Helen  Jeffreys,  that  all  your  avoid- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  47 

ance  has  been  a  matter  of  free  will — that  you  yourself 
have  chosen  to  show  this  preference  for — 

"  Helen,"  bleated  Selina,  peevishly,  from  the  adjoin- 
ing sitting-room.  "  Hel — en,  where  are  you,  dear?" 

His  hand  fell  forceless  at  his  side.  I  saw  that  he  had 
grown  quite  pale  in  these  few  moments.  I  had  turned 
toward  him  with  haughty  words  on  my  lips — words 
demanding  his  reason  for  that  rude  grasp  of  my  arm  : 
but  such  words  went  back  again  to  the  mental  arsenal 
from  whence  they  had  come,  to  be  re-stored,  I  suppose, 
as  ammunition  for  future  quarrels.  A  great  melan- 
choly change  possessed  his  eyes.  I  saw,  and  under- 
stood, and  wondered,  whilst  wonderment  sent  my 
anger  vanishing  like  a  pricked  bubble. 

"It  isn't  surely  a  matter  of  such  importance  to 
you?"  I  faltered.  "  Mr.  Dobell  and  I  have  come  to 
know  each  other  very  well  of  late.  You  mustn't  jump 
to  the  conclusion  that  his  society  is  preferable  to  yours : 
indeed,  I  haven't  said  so.  The  vanity  in  your  explana- 
tion rather  piqued  me,  I'll  admit." 

There  was  a  bitter  smile  under  his  scant  dark  moustache. 
"  I  think  I  understand  you  very  clearly,  now.  My  ex- 
planation was  vain,  perhaps.  Pride,  you  know,  goeth 
before  a  fall,"  he  ended,  the  bitter  smile  becoming  a 
light  bitter  laugh. 

"  Helen,"  lamented  Selina,  from  the  distant  hall, 
"  aren't  you  anywhere,  my  dear  ?  " 

I  rose.  "  We  shall  see  each  other  after  lunch,"  I 
prophesied,  meaningly. 

"Just  as  you  please." 

"  You  shall  take  me  driving,  if  you  want." 

He  looked  amazed  ;  or  was  it  satirical  for  amazement  ? 
"  What  sop  shall  be  given  to  your  Cerberus  in  the  mean- 
while ?" 


48  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  You  don't  mean  Selina  Matthers  ?  She  frightens 
people ^vith  her  teeth,  and  so  did  Cerberus,  I  believe." 

"  No  ;   I  mean  Mr.  Fuller  Dobell." 

In  spite  of  myself  the  color  would  break  dykes  a  lit- 
tle ;  if  not  an  inundation  there  was  certainly  a  heavy 
leakage  made  evident,  as  I  rattled  off  with  rather  bung- 
lingly-feigned  indifference  :  "  Oh,  he  is  going  some- 
where, I  think.  Anyhow,  whether  he  goes  or  not,  it 
will  be  all  the  same.  On  second  thought,  /  had  better 
take  you  driving,  in  the  basket-wagon.  I  trust  Selina 
can  be  persuaded  that  we're  not  treating  her  with  pre- 
cisely heinous  rudeness." 

Mr.  Dobell  left  at  about  two  o'clock  that  afternoon. 
Selina  and  I  had  gone  upstairs  for  a  nap  on  the  same 
bed.  I  had  given  orders  at  what  time  his  carriage  should 
be  brought  round,  and  whilst  lying  on  the  bed  I  could 
now  hear  the  tell-tale  wheels  come  crushingly  up  along 
the  gravel  to  the  door  ;  then  in  a  little  while  their  loco- 
motion commenced  again,  and  I  knew  that  they  were 
being  drawn  hotelward  on  that  mysterious  journey. 

"  Selina,"  I  began,  "  Mr.  Dobell  has  gone  away  on 
a  little  business  of  his  own  ;  driving,  you  know  ;  I  can't 
precisely  say  where." 

"  That's  nothing  to  me,  Helen  dear,"  yawned  my 
bed-fellow,  taking  the  home  route  from  dreamland  by 
easy  stages. 

Determined  to  get  the  ice  broken  and  done  with,  I 
went  on,  with  voice  "  like  the  waters  of  Shiloah  that  go 
softly."  ."No,  of  course  not.  But  I  was  wondering 
whether  you  wouldn't  find  it  rather  disgusting  to  be  left 
all  alone  this  afternoon  ;  and  so  when  it  was  proposed 
that  Melville  Delano  should  take  me  driving  I  rather 
hesitated  to  adopt  such  a  plan."  Then  followed  a  gen- 
tle gush  of  entreaty.  "  You  won't  mind,  dear,  will 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  49 

you  ?  We'll  promise  not  to  stay  very  long,  and  I'll  lend 
you  '  Why  Did  She  Desert  Her  Husband?  '  It's  charm- 
ing ;  even  better  than  (  Leaves  from  the  Life  of  a  Fast 
Man,'  by  the  same  author,  which  I  am  sure  you  must 
have  read  ;  nearly  everybody  has."  Thus  far  I  had 
felt  considerable  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  my  supplica- 
tions :  but  now  a  smile,  hideous  with  good-nature,  re- 
assured me.  Much  emboldened,  I  went  on,  after  that, 
with  "  Will  you  think  it  rude,  my  dear  ?  Had  I  better 
not  go  ?  "  et  cetera  for  some  distance.  There  was  some- 
thing quite  queer  in  the  sudden  self-searching  character 
of  these  remarks ;  a  change  which  took  place,  oddly 
enough,  after  I  had  made  sure  that  Selina  was  likely  to 
detect  no  rudeness  in  my  proposed  desertion  of  her. 

It  must  have  been  about  an  hour  later  when  Melville 
and  I  drove  off  in  the  basket-wagon. 

He  was  not  at  all  in  good  spirits,  I  noticed,  at  the 
outset  of  our  ride.  Indeed  he  had  been  in  the  antipodes 
of  good  spirits  ever  since  our  dialogue  behind  the  cur- 
tain. The  afternoon  was  so  delicious  that  anything  but 
genial  companionship  seemed  a  right  troublesome  dis- 
cord. Breadth  after  breadth  of  beautiful  candid  color, 
the  frosted  woods  rose  at  either  side  ;  long  jungles  of 
ruby-red  sumach  tossed  their  brilliant  wee  wyverns  in 
the  brisk  bracing  air  ;  whole  meadowfuls  of  golden- 
rods,  battalion  by  nodding  battalion,  lapsed  away  like 
new  golcondas  under  the  clear-blue  afternoon  sky  ;  the 
wild  asters  lavished  their  opulent  purple  plumes  along 
lane  and  pasture,  in  loveliest  largesse.  O  these  ex- 
quisite autumn  days,  with  their  gladness  and  their  sad- 
ness braided  together,  like  a  tress  of  gray  hair  with  a 
child's  bright  young  curl  !  O  hours  wherein  summer, 
like  a  dying  queen,  bequeaths  to  all  her  constant  patient 
subjects  what  the  unleal  and  faithless  left  behind  them 
3  . 


50  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

as  they  fled,  clothing  her  loyal  foliage  in  all  her  lost 
flowers'  abandoned  beauties  ! 

Matters  had  reached  a  condition  of  dead  silence  be- 
tween us,  when  Flirt  unconsciously  supplied  a  topic  by 
shying  rather  badly  at  a  stump. 

"  She's  pretty  gamesome  to-day,"  I  announced, 
straightening  myself  in  a  responsible  style,  as  though 
one  had  to  be  a  sort  of  trustworthy  character  in  order  to 
drive  her  properly.  "  I  almost  wish,  though,  that  she'd 
shied  worse,  if  that  would  have  waked  you  up  at  all." 

He  started.  "  Do  you  ?  One  can  ilf  talk  of  gnats 
when  one  is  thinking  of  lions."  He  gave  a  short  harsh 
laugh.  "  You  might  better  have  driven  Miss  Matthers 
out,  I  fancy  ;  she  would  have  been  nicer  company  than 
I  am,  surely." 

"  Dear  me,"  I  commented,  reining  in  Flirt,  who  had 
gotten  going  a  little  too  impetuously, ."  it's  a  shame  that 
your  visit  should  turn  out  the  failure  it's  doing.  You 
expected  to  have  a  jolly  time,  I  know." 

Silence.     Presently : 

' 'You  are  quite  wrong.  I  never  have  a  jolly  time 
where  you  are  ;  I  don't  know  why  I  ever  go  near  you. 
Even  when  you  are  most  charming  to  me  you  make  me 
most  miserable." 

I  knew  that  his  eyes  (with  something  so  Spanish  about 
the  blackness  of  their  darkness)  were  fixed  upon  my 
face  ;  but  I  kept  my  own  eyes  riveted  on  an  imaginary 
point  precisely  between  Flirt's  alert  ears.  "  That's  too 
bad,"  I  criticised,  with  horrible  lack  of  appropriateness 
and  much  embarrassment.  After  which,  becoming  more 
self-possessed,  I  gave  birth  to  the  following  platitude  : 
"It  is  very  unpleasant  to  feel  one's  self  the  means  of 
making  another  miserable." 

His  voice  was  softer — much  softer,  then.     "  I  believe 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  ^ 

you  think  so.  But  it  is  not  your  fault,  certainly,  that 
you  are  coveted  and  yet  unreachable  ;  you've  the  con- 
solation of  knowing  that  fate  made  you  rich  and  a  great 
match,  and  guarded  you  for  the  one  fortunate  suitor, 
whoever  he  may  be,  with  a  very  awful  sentinelship. 
Don't  think  me  impertinent  by  this ;  but  I  mean  your 
mother's  ambition." 

"  I  do  think  you  impertinent,"  with  sharp  voice  I 
made  answer,  turning  my  eyes  away  from  Flirt  that  they 
might  flash  their  most  irate  lightnings  upon  him. 
"What  right  have  you  to  question  either  mamma's 
ambition  or  her  humility  P*' 

The  odd-sounding  laugh  again.  "  No  right,  of  course. 
No  right  to  love  you  and  long  for  you,  either.  I  don't 
suppose  it  is  anything  new  to  you,  this  hearing  that  I 
have  loved  you,  by  the  way.  You  must  have  guessed 
it  long  ago." 

"  I  prefer  talking  of  pleasanter  subjects,"  I  frowned, 
my  anger  cooling.  "  You  rightly  call  me  unreachable, 
though  for  more  reasons  than  one,  am  I  beyond  your 
reach.  I  do  not  love  you." 

I  saw  pain  drag  down  the  corners  of  his  mouth  for 
a  second ;  saw  it  quiver  in  his  thin  thorough-bred 
nostril ;  saw  it  leap  up  glitteringly  in  one  swift  sweep 
of  his  eyes  across  my  face.  After  that  came  a  little  si- 
lence, which  he  at  length  broke,  with  his  voice  set  in  a 
dull  hard  monotone  :  "  Strange.  Very  strange  indeed." 

"What  is  strange?"  I  questioned,  shortly.  "That 
I  shouldn't  love  you  ?  Or  is  it  that  you're  only  trying 
to  be  oracular  ?  " 

"  No,  no,"  he  hurried  along,  with  sorrowful  sternness. 
"  Twas  thinking  that  before  you  met  Dobell,  there  was 
possibly  no  man  among  all  your  friends  whom  you 
would  rather  have  married  than  myself — at  least  as  far 


$2  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

as  personal  and  not  worldly  feelings  went.  Now  it  is 
wholly  changed.  You  have  met  that  man  whom  I  pre- 
fer less  for  a  rival  than  almost  any  one  I  know,  and  even 
the  poor  chances  once  held  by  me  of  winning  a  place  in 
your  heart,  are  swept  completely  away.  I  was  a  fool 
riot  to  have  seen  this  yesterday.  A  man's  vanity  makes 
him  play  at  blindman's-bufT with  the  truth,  sometimes." 

His  tones  had  become  miserably  desolate.  I  like  him 
so  well  that  I  could  not  help  pitying  him  passionately. 
I  know  there  were  tears  in  the  eyes  which  I  turned 
toward  him.  I  know  that  sympathy  made  my  Voice 
tremulous,  not  to  speak  of  my  lower  lip. 

"  You  have  no  business  at  all  to  connect  my  name 
with  Mr.  Dobell's,"  I  didn't  by  any  means  say  harshly. 
u  You've  no  business  to  infer  that  I  am  in  love  with 
him." 

He  must  have  taken  my  words  to  mean  more,  a  great 
deal  more,  than  I  had  intended  them  to  mean  ;  for  they 
were  scarcely  spoken  before  I  felt  his  yellow  dog-skin 
hand  making  intimate  acquaintance  with  my  driving- 
gauntlet,  just  in  the  region  of  the  wrist.  "  Helen, 
Helen,"  he  was  murmuring  close  at  my  ear,  the  next 
instant,  "  am  I  wrong,  then,  after  all?  Have  I  a  dim 
hope  of  winning  you  in  the  future  ?  If  you  have  the 
courage  to  stand  out  against  persuasions,  perhaps  tyran- 
nies, I  have  the  strength  and  resolution — 

"  No,  no,  no,"  I  opposed,  with  decision,  when  he  had 
gotten  thus  far.  "  It  isn't  that  at  all.  I  could  never 
marry  you  in  any  case.  With  me  there  just  must  be 
love  of  a  certain  sort — that  is,  I  suppose  so — and  I  don't 
think — indeed  I'm  sure  that  you  and  I —  Well  for 
Heaven's  sake  drop  the  subject,"  I  perorated,  red  and 
wretched  because  he  had  so  misunderstood  me. 

He  released  my  wrist  with  a  heavy  frown.     There  fol- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


53 


lowed  quite  a  long  period  of  silence,  after  that,  during 
which  I  felt  him  to  be  angry,  and  made  many  mute 
mental  statements  to  the  effect  that  he  had  no  right  to 
be  angry.  By  and  by  I  reached  the  conclusion  that 
since  there  was  no  other  way  out  of  our  tiresome  silence 
we  had  better  get  up  a  quarrel  together.  Quarrelling 
usually  makes  conversation  at  first,  however  murderous 
an  effect  the  result  may  produce  upon  it. 

Of  course  it  was  for  me  to  fire  the  first  gun.  I  re- 
member that  I  had  such  a  gun  all  ready — liberally  loaded 
to  the  muzzle,  in  fact,  and  that,  to  continue  the  bellicose 
metaphor,  my  finger  was  on  its  trigger.  No  matter 
what  I  was  going  to  say  :  we  all  know  that  there  have 
been  many  great  sayings  which  never  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  slip  past  the  door-keeper  of  history.  This  of 
mine  was  never  uttered,  much  as  it  may  have  deserved 
the  applause  of  posterity.  And  Flirt  is  to  blame  ;  Flirt, 
who  shied  furiously  just  as  the  valuable  remark  occupied 
my  tongue's  extremest  tip. 

I  suppose  that  an  organ-grinder  was  her  present 
excuse  for  leaving  it  to  fickle  fortune  whether  the 
basket-wagon  should  end  its  days  prematurely  against 
a  tree-trunk  or  not,  and  then  galloping  like  a  stag  out 
over  the  road  again ;  for  just  as  we  bounced  past  the 
spot  which  seemed  so  to  disgust  her  vixenship,  I  caught 
a  glimpse  of  a  gentleman  whose  huge  green-baize  burden 
indicated  his  profession  as  plainly  as  dark  complexion, 
ear-rings,  and  a  general  suggestion  of  much  filth  pointed 
toward  a  recent  residence  in  the  sunny  South.  Melville 
Delano's  hands  were  heavy  on  the  reins  before  Flirt's 
third  gallop,  making  baby-play  on  the  instant  of  my 
own  tugging  hold.  Now  it  is  usually  an  article  of  faith 
among  men,  as  everybody  knows,  that  when  one  of  them 
is  driving  and  another  unsolicited  makes  a  grab  at  the 


54  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

reins,  damn  you  at  once  takes  rank  among  the  worn-out 
extravagant  politenesses  of  the  old-school  in  comparison 
with  the  thing  which  it  forthwith  becomes  right  and  ad- 
missible and  even  necessary  to  say.  Every  man  likes 
to  have  his  neighbor's  hands  kept  at  respectful  distance 
from  his  pocket,  his  wife,  and  the  reins  of  the  horse  he 
happens  to  be  driving ;  and  altogether  I  think  such 
preferences  completely  proper. 

But  how  about  every  woman  in  this  last  equine  par- 
ticular? Well,  I  suppose  that  nearly  every  woman 
would  expect,  under  similar  circumstances,  to  receive 
the  same  courteously  protective  treatment  which  I  re- 
ceived. But  all  women  are  neither  cowards  nor  bad 
drivers,  despite  the  amazing  majority  which  is  both.  I 
am  not  at  all  a  coward  about  horses,  for  instance  ;  and 
I  don't  want  any  one  to  waste  breath  by  telling  me  that 
I  drive  astonishingly  well. 

Wherefore  (and  also  because  of  past  quarrelsome  in- 
tentions, doubtless)  I  chose  to  be  wroth  exceedingly  at 
Melville  Delano's  interference.  "  Let  go  of  the  reins," 
I  snapped.  "  I'm  quite  able  to  govern  her  myself,  if 
you  please." 

He  turned  toward  me  with  amazed  eyes,  whilst  Flirt 
was  bounding  on.  "  Do  you  really  mean  it." 

"  Of  course  I  mean  it,"  shouted  I,  fierily. 

A  second  after  that  I  found  myself  driving  again. 
Flirt  pulls  ferociously  when  she  chooses,  and  she  was 
choosing  then.  "  I  don't  suppose  one  could  call  it  a  run- 
away, could  one?"  was  the  dismal  mental  question  I 
began  to  put  myself.  She  has  always  been  renowned 
for  her  incidental  gymnastics,  has  Flirt,  but  I  couldn't 
recollect  any  occasion  except  the  present  one,  when  a 
little  brisk  pulling  hadn't  tamed  her  down.  The  only 
exhaustive  effect,  however,  which  the  pulling  seemed  to 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


55 


have,  was  produced  upon  my  wrists  and  elbow-joints. 
She  wouldrit  stop  galloping  ;  indeed,  every  fresh  stride 
that  she  took  seemed  to  carry  me  nearer  the  conviction 
that  she  was  running  away.  Her  head,  bent  ground- 
ward,  had  in  its  pose  all  the  defiance  of  rankest  rebel- 
lion. It  appeared  to  announce,  as  no  spoken  sentence 
could  announce  clearlier,  "  I  won't  listen  to  reason  any 
more  ;  I've  got  my  head  and  I  mean  to  keep  it  till  some- 
thing is  broken  or  somebody,  killed." 

As  we  bowled  on,  I  began  to  creep  from  crown  to 
sole  with  an  awful  dread.  What  if  feminine  strength  in- 
deed pro&ted  of  no  avail,  and  the  man  at  my  side  still 
chose  to  sit  passive  ?  Well,  it  would  be  my  own  fault ; 
I  had  flown  into  a  passion  when  he  ventured  to  grasp 
the  reins,  and  now  he  preferred  maintaining  a  gentle- 
manly silence  whilst  we  both  were  being  scampered 
with  straight  to  destruction.  I  couldn't  reproach  him  ; 
no,  not  even  if  the  consequences  reduced  me  to  a  stump 
which  would  have  to  be  wheeled  round  in  a  carriage  all 
the  rest  of  its  days. 

Presently  I  was  having  severe  spinal  chills.  Some- 
thing laconic  but  heart-rending  in  the  way  of  an  appeal 
was  trembling  on  my  lips  ;  but  instead  of  making  it  I 
merely  screeched  to  Flirt  as  commandingly  as  I  was 
able.  Alas  !  I  might  as  well  have  told  a  streak  of  light- 
ning to  behave  itself,  or  have  offered  suggestions  about 
blowing  to  the  wind  that  "  bloweth  where  it  listeth." 

Matters  were  becoming  horribly  serious.  I  don't 
think  I'm  a  bit  of  a  coward,  or  I  should  have  been  less 
of  a  mule  in  the  matter  of  calling  upon  Melville  for 
assistance.  There  is  something  sublime,  to  my  think- 
ing, about  mulishness  that  would  rather  break  its  neck 
than  be  concession.  I  can't  say  that  mine  is  ever  of  this 
superb  sort.  Usually  it  just  misses  the  heroic  laurel. 


56  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  have  known  important  occasions  upon  which  I  would 
cheerfully  meet  with  a  serious  injury  of  the  neck  in 
preference  to  yielding  my  point  \  but  as  for  a  full  break- 
age— well,  I'm  neither  Joan  of  Arc  nor  the  Maid  of  Sar- 
agossa. 

Flirt  had  given  a  terrific  straight-ahead  bolt  that  made 
me  cold  all  over,  and  somehow  caused  my  tense-strained 
arms  and  hands  to  feel  as  if  they  were  somebody's  else, 
stuck  stiffly  forward  with  a  rein  in  each,  when  I  turned 
a  despairing  sheep's-eye  toward  my  companion.  His 
face  had  a  gray  stone-cut  look  which  I  had  never  before 
seen  it  wear.  He  was  evidently  quite  willing  to  be 
dashed  in  fragments. 

On  shot  Flirt.  My  obstinacy  was  in  its  death-strug- 
gle by  this  time.  Just  before  its  final  decease,  I  re- 
member thinking  whether  I  couldn't  compromise  mat- 
ters by  making  believe  swoon  away  on  Melville's  shoul- 
der :  but  as  common-sense  urged  that  an  abandonment 
of  the  reins  would  be  inseparable  from  any  such  grace- 
ful proceeding,  I  dismissed  the  idea  as  more  pathetic 
than  discreet. 

"  Don't  you  see  that  my  arms  are  being  torn  off?  " 
I  suddenly  shrieked,  very  much  as  though  I  had  been 
making  all  sorts  of  futile  appeals  for  the  past  half-hour, 
and  he  were  the  most  craven-hearted  caitiff  who  ever 
sneered  in  scorn  at  suffering  womanhood. 

My  words  acted  as  flame  acts  upon  powder.  Instantly 
he  bent  forward  and  caught  the  reins.  I  suppose  he 
caught  them  just  in  the  nick  of  time.  People  who  save 
other  people  from  violent  deaths  of  any  sort  whatever 
usually  do  so,  I  have  noticed,  just  in  the  nick  of  time— 
at  a  period,  in  fact,  calculated  with  such  providential 
nicety  that  the  billionth  part  of  a  second  would  have 
made  a  dolorous  difference  in  results.  Flirt  seemed  to 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  57 

feel  very  sensibly,  at  first,  the  new  fresh  power  tugging 
at  her  insubordinate  mouth.  Indeed,  I  was  beginning 
to  have  strong  hopes  that  she  had  found  her  match, 
when  Melville  Delano  muttered,  in  a  voice  low  enough 
to  be  called  abdominal : 

"  This  sort  of  thing  must  stop,  if  possible." 

It  did  stop,  presently,  with  a  shock  that  wasn't  Ti- 
tanic enough  to  overturn  our  little  stout  low  wagon,  or 
to  cause  an  eruption  of  either  Melville  or  myself,  but  a 
shock,  nevertheless,  which  narrowly  escaped  unseating 
me,  and  as  it  was  flung  me  against  my  companion 
in  a  fashion  that  proved  how  little  regard  for  maiden 
modesty  is  possessed  by  what  we  generally  term  the 
force  of  circumstances.  Melville  had  managed,  some- 
how, to  turn  Flirt's  head  in  amidst  a  very  impassable- 
looking  coppice  of  brambles  and  brushwood,  and 
whilst  she  made  several  spiteful  plunges  that  were  in 
reality  the  epilogue  of  her  evil  behavior,  I  sprang  out 
with  grateful  agility.  Presently  Melville  was  out  of  the 
wagon  also,  and  had  caught  her  by  the  bridle. 

"Wasn't  it  awful  ?  "  I  whispered,  with  much  bad  taste. 
"  I'm  so  glad  the  wagon  isn't  broken." 

"Excuse  contradiction,"  he  made  answer,  quietly, 
patting  Flirt,  whose  lustrous  auburn  body  shook  as 
though  it  was  allowed  by  nature  for  mares  to  have  hys- 
teria ;  "  but  don't  you  see  that  the  shaft  is  nearly  split 
in  two  ?  We  must  have  a  little  help  here.  Whose  is 
the  white  house  yonder  ?  " 

I  hadn't  noticed  any  white  house  as  yet,  for  the 
powerful  reason  that  my  mind  had  not  begun  to  occupy 
itself  with  the  geography  of  our  encompassing  brambles 
and  brushwood.  A  glance  at  the  large  white  building 
to  which  Melville  alluded  was  enough  for  me,  however. 
"  Oh,  that's  the  hotel.  I  didn't  think  we'd  gone  so  far." 
3* 


58  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

11  The  latter  part  of  the  drive  was  rather  deceptive  in 
its  rate  of  progress,"  criticised  Melville,  dryly.  "  I 
suppose  there  is  somebody  there,"  he  went  on,  "  who 
could  be  of  assistance  in  tying  this  shaft  up  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.  Mamma  knows  Mr.  Collins,  the  present 
proprietor,  quite  well.  He  is  indebted  to  her  for  several 
boarders  during  this  summer  and  summers  past,  and 
will  treat  our  shaft,  I  feel  sure,  as  though  it  were  per- 
sonal property.  Shall  I  go  and  pay  "him  a  visit  ?  " 

"  Hadn't  you  better  let  me  go  ?  "  he  proposed,  cour- 
teously. Melville  is  nearly  always  courteous  except 
when  offering  himself  in  marriage  to  people,  I  have  thus 
far  found.  "The  mare  is  quite  quiet  now,  and  I  will 
fasten  her  to  the  tree  yonder." 

"In  that  case  we  might  walk  up  to  the  hotel  to- 
gether," I  suggested,  good-humoredly.  "  It  will  look 
as  if  we  were  more  experienced  in  runaways,  you  know, 
and  ralher  superior  to  them." 

He  laughed  that  pleasant  laugh  of  his  ;  and  shortly  af- 
terward we  were  crossing  the  hotel-grounds  side  by  side. 

The  monstrous  vacant  piazza  looked  dreary  beyond 
language  ;  all  the  building's  multitudinous  windows  were 
shuttered  solemnly;  "life  and  thought  have  gone 
away,"  appositely  murmured  itself  through  my  mind,  as 
I  recollected  the  style  which  children  have  of  making 
hotel-piazzas  hideous  whilst  the  dog-star  rages,  and  how 
fashion  and  folly  and  gossip  meet  there  like  the  three 
Macbeth  witches,  to  hob-and-nob,  cheek  by  jowl. 

"  Can  I  see  Mr.  Collins  ?  "  I  asked  of  the  servant  who 
appeared  at  the  front  door,  after  we  had  rung  several 
resultless  peals  thereat. 

Mr.  Collins  was  away  ;  would  Mrs.  Collins  do  ? 
We  concluded,  after  a  mutual  glance,  that  Mrs.  Collins 
would  do. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


59 


Would  we  care  to  step  into  the  parlor  and  wait  ? 

A  second  mutual  glance  decided  us  in  favor  of  step- 
ping into  the  parlor  and  waiting. 

The  parlor  was  a  huge  many-windowed  curtainles? 
barn  of  a  place,  with  cohorts  of  cheap  cheerless  chairs 
and  a  pompous  carpet,  all  dizzying  flourishes.  I  seated 
myself  at  a  window  which  looked  out  upon  the  piazza. 
Melville  did  the  same. 

I  had  given  my  name  to  the  servant,  and  now  re- 
gretted having  given  it.  "  Mrs.  Collins  is  a  dashing 
pretentious  little  body,  who  will  probably  put  on  her 
very  smartest  gear  to  receive  us  in/'  I  informed  Melville, 
"and  flutter  innocently  downstairs  after  prinking  twenty 
minutes." 

The  last  word  had  not  left  my  lips  when  a  sound  of 
steps  on  the  piazza  outside  caused  me  to  turn  curious 
eyes  in  that  direction. 

A  man  and  a  woman  came  slowly  toward  me  ;  slowly 
enough  for  me  to  observe  them  both  with  the  utmost 
distinctness  of  scrutiny. 

The  woman  was  tall  beyond  the  ordinary  height  of  her 
sex.  She  wore  a  black-silk  walking-suit  which  was  just 
perfection  in  every  way,  and  which  looked  as  if  nothing 
except  the  dainty  deftness  of  Parisian  fingers  could  ever 
have  made  it  so  lovely  and  of  such  admirable  style. 
Her  figure,  full  of  nobly  symmetric  lines,  blended  grace 
of  motion  with  its  rich  rounded  fulness  :  instantly  I 
thought  of  a  certain  scrap  which  John  Driscoll  had 
marked  in  the  Browning  he  lent  me  last  year  : 

"  And  the  breast's  superb  abundance  where  a  man  might  base  his  head." 

I  have  no  business,  I  suppose,  to  dare  describe  her  face. 
It  was  patrician  ;  it  was  languorous  ;  it  was  soulful  ; 
it  was  saintly.  Large  light-lashed  eyes  lit  it ;  from 


60  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

firm  fair  throat  to  tender  temple  one  soft  peachy  color 
prevailed  over  it ;  a  deep  tiny  chin-dimple  gave  it 
piquancy  ;  a  straight  Greek  nose,  delicate-nostrilled  and 
clear-cut,  refined  it ;  a  small  mouth,  ripe  and  red-lipped, 
sweetened  it :  and  of  all  this  the  sum  and  substance 
was  beauty  such  as  one  meets  not  many  times  whilst 
one  lives  and  observes.  It  was  only  when  she  had  come 
directly  opposite  me  that  I  saw  to  thorough  advantage 
her  massive  knotted  hair  ;  for  until  then  her  black 
round-hat  had  left  only  one  little  fragment  of  it  to  gleam 
above  either  shell-pink  ear.  In  speaking  of  that  hair  I 
use  the  possessive  pronoun  with  a  fearless  sense  of 
correctness.  I  don't  believe  that  any  hair-dresser  ever 
had  anything  just  like  it  in  his  life.  I  doubt  if  he  could 
find  any  customer  for  it,  were  such  the  case,  though 
possibly  some  actress,  mad  to  look  bizarre,  might  have 
rioted  with  it  through  a  semi-nude  can-can.  And  as 
for  its  being  stained  hair,  the  idea  isn't  worth  thinking 
about ;  for  though  red,  brilliantly,  sensationally  red, 
there  yet  played  along  its  pliant  silken  curves  "  a  light 
that  never  was"  in  dye  or  wash,  to  mutilate  an  old 
quotation.  No  "  golden-fluid  "  ever  accomplished  the 
lustre  of  that  beautiful  glimmering  luminousness.  It 
was  the  kind  of  hair  that  some  people  would  have 
turned  from  in  dismay,  if  not  disgust,  hating  its  keen 
fierce  unconventional  tinge  ;  but  just,  I  suppose,  as 
olives  and  truffles  and  anchovy  paste  require  cultured 
palates  in  their  consumption,  so  did  these  odd  gaudy 
tresses  require  a  taste  quite  unmanacled  by  any  cumber- 
some prejudice  in  order  that  they  might  be  properly 
admired. 

This  ponderous  descriptive  passage  of  mine  compares 
strangely  enough  with  the  short  little  chain  of  glimpses 
from  which  it  has  resulted.  So  much  for  the  woman 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  fo 

who  strolled  past  me,  tossing  in  one  of  her  shapely 
ungloved  hands  a  vivid  spray  of  golden-rod,  and  mur- 
muring, with  exquisite  sidelong  head,  some  low  slow 
words  to  her  companion. 

I  have  said,  I  believe,  that  her  companion  was  a  man. 
I  have  not  said,  however,  that  this  man  was  Fuller 
Dobell. 

Yes,  Fuller  Dobell,  in  all  the  tangible  reality  possessed 
by  flesh  and  blood,  not  to  speak  of  broadcloth.  There 
he  moved,  leisurely,  well-favored,  high-bred  looking, 
irrefutably  himself:  and  the  mystery  of  that  solitary 
departure  from  Pineside  was  no  longer  a  matter  of 
Cimmerian  darkness.  He  had  come  here  to  "  piazza" 
the  afternoon  away  in  this  houri's  company,  whoever 
she  was. 

I  drew  back  fully  two  yards  from  the  window  the 
instant  that  I  recognized  him.  I  will  confess  to  you, 
Diary,  that  the  woman's  rare  and  radiant  beauty  struck 
me  a  hard  miserable  blow.  One  little  moment  will  tell 
us  so  much,  sometimes  !  That  little  moment  told  me 
how  Fuller  Dobell  had  power  to  sicken  me  with  bitter- 
est jealousy. 

They  were  no  longer  visible  to  me,  and  I  stood  very 
close  up  against  the  window,  now,  having  followed  them 
with  my  eyes  as  far  as  such  pursuit  was  possible,  when 
Melville  Delano's  hand  fell  upon  my  shoulder,  and  fell 
there  by  no  means  lightly. 

As  I  turned  to  meet  his  face  it  struck  me  that  he  was 
in  what  we  usually  term  a  quiet  rage.  "  Miss  Helen," 
he  began,  bright-eyed  and  harsh-voiced,  "  I  must  insist 
upon  your  leaving  this  house  at  once.  Pray  don't  ask 
any  questions  ;  and  pray  come." 

"What  can  you  mean  ?  "  I  wondered.  "  Shan't  we 
wait  for  Mrs.  Collins  ?  " 


62  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  For  no  one.  You  will  thank  me,  perhaps,  at  some 
future  time  for  taking  you  away."  By  this  he  had 
reached  the  door  of  the  parlor,  and  stood  with  a  hand 
on  the  knob.  There  was  the  sharpness  of  irritation 
in  his  tones,  now  :  "  Don't  you  intend  coming  ?  " 

"Yes,"  I  made  answer,  walking  toward  him  with 
brisk  steps,  more  than  a  merely  vague  idea  of  the  actual 
truth  having  begun  to  dawn  upon  me. 

Precisely  at  this  moment  enter  Mrs.  Collins  by  the 
very  door  whose  knob  Melville  was  holding  :  I  had 
proved  a  false  prophetess  with  regard  to  the  smart 
toilette  and  the  twenty  minutes  of  expectancy.  Mrs. 
Collins*  vast  smile  as  she  bustled  forward  to  welcome 
me  was  qflite  out  of  proportion  with  her  little  active 
anatomy  of  a  body. 

"I'm  so  delighted,  my  dear  Miss  Jeffreys!  How's 
mamma  ?  Very  well,  I  trust.  It's  such  an  age  since — " 

Melville  cruelly  dammed  the  poor  mite's  further  current 
of  civilities  by  rapidly  and  with  crushing  conciseness 
telling  her  the  object  of  our  visit.  "  Could  you  spare 
us  a  man  and  a  bit  of  stout  rope  ? "  he  finished, 
mercilessly  careless  of  how  polite  amazement  and  polite 
sympathy  were  going  far  toward  making  the  little  lady 
entirely  mute  in  the  matter  of  a  reply.  "  If  so,  Miss 
Jeffreys  and  I  will  at  once  go  down  to  the  wagon  and 
wait  there  :  the  mare  is  not  very  securely  tied." 

"Of  course,"  cooed  Mrs.  Collins  in  a  dazed  style; 
silently  wondering,  I  am  confident,  why  my  mother's 
daughter  should  allow  herself  to  be  run  away  with  in 
the  company  of  such  a  rude  young  man. 

After  that  Melville  indicated  with  a  few  hurried  words 
the  exact  spot  of  the  accident,  leaving  the  parlor  as  he 
did  so  and  drawing  near  the  hall-door,  whilst  I 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  63 

followed  obediently  enough.  I  remember  that  in  his 
excitement  he  did  not  overlook  courtesy,  but  on  open- 
ing the  hall-door  drew  back  for  me  to  pass  out  first.  I 
should  have  done  so  at  once,  if  directly  in  my  path, 
standing  opposite  the  threshold  I  was  about  to  cross  and 
evidently  in  act  to  ring  for  admission,  I  had  not  lifted 
my  eyes  to  behold  Mr.  Fuller  Dobell  and  his  beautiful 
fellow-pedestrian.  As  it  was,  I  just  stood  and  stared. 

Fuller  Dobell,  for  the  first  time  in  all  my  cutaneous 
acquaintance  with  him,  blushed  peony-red  to  his  hat- 
rim.  His  companion  raised  her  straight  amber-colored 
eyebrows  and  heightened  her  bewitching  chin  a  trifle,  in 
lovely  serene  surprise  ;  but  that  even  peach-bloom  of  her 
flawless  oval  face  waxed  not  nor  waned,  howsoever  faintly. 

"  Upon  my  word,"  Fuller  Dobell  broke  silence,  very 
stammeringly  indeed,  "this  is  so  unexpected  that 
really—" 

"  That  you  will  oblige  me  by  not  even  expressing  the 
surprise  it  causes  you,"  rang  forth  Melville's  voice  from 
behind  me,  sharp  and  trenchant  as  a  scythe-stroke. 

Fuller  Dobell  seemed  to  draw  in  one  short  hard 
breath  which  made  his  shoulders  squarer  and  his  breast 
broader.  "  Pray  what  right  have  you,  sir,"  he  sneered, 
"  to  mark  out  lines  of  conduct  for  my  following  ?  "  His 
tones  fairly  rumbled  with  smothered  rage.  It  was  the 
low-voiced  fury  of  a  man  who  would  rather  strike  than 
speak,  as  I  plainly  saw,  who  now  saw  him  angry  for  the 
first  time. 

"  Only  the  right  of  having  this  young  lady  under  my 
present  protection,"  sped  Melville's  defiant  answer. 
"  I  forbid  you  from  addressing  a  word  to  her  here  and 
now  :  you  cannot  do  so,  and  you  well  know  it,  without 
insult." 

I  daresay  that  I  shouldn't  have  seen  the  arm  which  he 


64  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

offered  me,  if  it  hadn't  been  thrust  before  my  eyes  in  so 
prominent  a  curvature  ;  for  the  beautiful  cold  angerless 
disdain  which  had  suddenly  asserted  itself  on  that 
woman's  face,  and  of  which  I  seemed  no  less  the  object 
than  Melville  Delano,  enticed  me  far  more  than  if  I  had 
met  with  its  striking  effect  midmost  the  four  golden 
boundaries  of  some  elegant  picture-frame,  with  a  tiny 
link  of  ugly  letters  in  one  corner,  meaning  Toulmouche 
or  De  Jonghe,  or  somebody  of  that  gifted  sort.  As  it 
was,  I  had  to  see  the  arm  which  Melville  put  forward : 
but  being  seen  by  no  means  necessitated  for  the  arm 
that  it  should  be  taken. 

Nor  do  I  think  that  I  would  have  taken  it,  had  there 
not  seemed  something  guiltily  red,  and  not  confusedly, 
about  the  flush  that  still  fired  Fuller  Dobell's  face. 
Everything  else  was  in  his  favor,  except  Melville  De- 
lano's eager  shocked  expedition  in  the  matter  of  trying 
to  get  me  away;  that  looked  like  honest  gentlemanly 
zeal. 

Everything  else  ? 

On  second  thought  I  must  admit  those  words  to  be 
rather  strong  generalizing,  since  I  only  have  reference 
to  the  black-silk  walking-suit  and  certain  lesser  accom- 
paniments, worn  by  Fuller  Dobell's  lady-friend.  I  have 
lain  to  my  soul  for  at  least  two  years  past,  the  flattering 
unction  that  the  power  is  a  new  sense  with  me,  of  de- 
tecting dim  differences  between  what  is  called  bad  style 
and  good  style.  In  things  relative  to  the  proprieties  of 
a  woman's  wardrobe,  there  is  no  necessity  whatever  for 
the  wind  to  be  southerly  in  order  that  I  may  detect  a 
hawk  from  a  hernshaw.  No  woman  could  impose  upon 
me  by  means  of  a  generally  correct  style  and  minor  de- 
tails that  were  flagrant  abominations.  And  when  a 
woman  has  passed,  blamelessly  dressed,  across  my  field 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  65 

of  vision,  the  citadel  of  my  good-will  is  already  three- 
quarters  won.  I  should  very  much  prefer  the  society 
of  a  wicked  sister  whose  misdeeds  have  nothing  in 
common  with  her  bonnet-trimmings,  to  that  of  a  wicked 
sister  who  has  trodden  her  evil  path  in  vulgar-looking 
boots. 

To  state  the  case  with  brevity,  Melville  Delano  had 
given  me  pointedly  to  understand,  that  my  lungs  were 
doing  duty  in  a  very  contaminating  atmosphere:  I 
should  have  been  the  most  tiresome  sort  of  an  ignora- 
mus not  to  have  guessed  some  such  thing  as  this. 
Eloquently  in  refutation  of  his  implied  charge  spake 
forth  the  black-silk  walking-suit,  that  looked  as  if  it 
wouldn't  listen  for  a  moment  to  being  worn  by  any  one 
but  an  absolute  lady,  the  unimpeachable  little  round  hat 
with  its  one  broad  burnished  feather  full  of  soft  rainbow 
lights,  the  small  embroidered  linen  collar,  the  pretty 
jabot  in  place  of  brooch,  the  glimmer  of  oblong  ear- 
rings, (it  is  so  easy  to  be  bad  style  in  ear-rings)  and 
lastly  the  thorough-bred  pose  and  movement  that  is 
about  as  difficult  to  catch  and  copy  as  to  make  some 
spurious  coin  ring  "  like  a  piece  of  gold  thrown  down." 

There  stood  that  woman,  with  "  lady"  in  every  fold 
of  her  faultless  garments,  every  curve  of  her  perfect 
figure,  brilliant  in  her  haughty  beauty,  a  silent  con- 
temptuous refutation  of  Melville's  hard  innuendo.  But 
on  Fuller  Dobell's  cheek  that  guilty  blush  was  burning, 
and  through  my  mind  stole  sternly  the  remembrance  of 
how  he  had  cloaked  about  with  all  available  secrecy  his 
departure  from  Pineside.  At  least  there  was  the  doubt 
to  be  met,  the  risk  to  be  run.  All  proper  (or  profess- 
edly proper)  females  are  cowards  when  placed  as  I  was 
placed.  I  neither  dared  meet  the  doubt  nor  run  the 
risk.  Melville's  arm  waited:  I  dropt  my  eyes,  after 


66  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

the  manner  of  the  "  virtuous  gentlewoman  deeply 
wronged,"  and  hurried  with  him  across  the  hotel-lawn, 
no  more  presuming  to  look  behind  me  than  if  saline 
consequences  of  a  most  disastrous  nature  were  sure  to 
result  from  such  an  action. 

We  didn't  speak  a  word  to  each  other  during  that 
little  journey  wagonward.  Flirt  was  found  to  be  in 
unmolested  duress  when  we  reached  her.  I  watched 
Melville  potter  with  the  damaged  shaft  for  a  little  while, 
and  then  strolled  deeper  among  the  brambles,  medi- 
tatively tearing  my  clothes  upon  them  and  picking 
beautiful  red  sumach-leaves  which  I  didn't  at  all  want. 
Once  or  twice  I  stole  a  glance  at  Melville's  face  :  it 
wore  severe  drear  solemnity,  as  if  he  felt  thoroughly 
satisfied  with  his  late  line  of  conduct.  It  was  no  doubt 
quite  criminal  of  me,  but  I  had  an  unamiable  desire  to 
commence  walking  home  alone,  and  leave  him  to  follow 
in  the  wagon  as  soon  as  its  resuscitated  shaft  would 
permit.  Temporarily,  I  disliked  Melville  very  much 
indeed  ;  a  dislike  engendered,  quite  possibly,  by  the 
reflection  that  in  case  certain  suspicions  were  well 
founded,  I  ought  to  feel  the  roots  of  my  being  moved 
toward  him  in  grateful  respect.  Such  anomalies  of  in- 
gratitude are  now  and  then  to  be  encountered  in  human 
nature. 

Presently  a  man  appeared  with  the  desired  ligatures  ; 
upon  seeing  whom  I  strolled  farther  away  from  the 
wagon,  trying  to  absorb  myself  in  outward  things — such, 
for  instance,  as  the  sun,  westering  superbly  along  pale 
greenish  heaven  ;  the  lissom  grace  of  a  huge  purple- 
beaded  elder-bush  ;  a  journeying  company  of  dark 
birds,  distant  yet  distinct  in  that  pure  clear  autumn  air, 
and  looking  because  of  their  single-filed  flight  like  some 
great  rosary  falling  earthward,  as  if  dropped  by  some 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  fy 

dozing  saint  from  where  "  saints  in  glory  dwell,"  inces- 
sant glory  being  conducive  to  drowsiness,  as  nearly 
everybody  will  admit.  I  hated  to  let  my  thoughts  turn 
upon  other  things  than  these.  The  time  to  canvass 
Fuller  Dobell's  doings  had  not  arrived  yet :  there  was 
more  than  a  ghostly  chance  that  Melville  Delano's  com- 
mendable rescue  had  flavored  the  least  trifle  of  Quixot- 
ism. The  bad  passions  are  always  light  sleepers  enough  ; 
anger  will  start  from  her  bed  at  the  suspicion  of  a  sound, 
and  her  own  grim  dreams  will  often  rouse  up  jealousy. 
For  once  at  least  let  my  bad  passions  wake  to  no  false 
alarm.  Let  the  wheelwork  of  my  thoughts  stand  idle 
till  fed  with  the  proper  mental  grist.  Time  enough  to 
fume  and  storm  when  the  real  truth  should  unveil  its 
naked  ugliness. 

The  joining  together  of  what  Flirt  had  broken  asunder 
didn't  occupy  at  all  a  long  time.  Melville  called  to  me 
much  sooner  than  I  had  expected  to  be  summoned,  and 
received  no  answer  until  he  had  repeated  my  name  for 
the  third  time  :  of  course  this  affected  deafness  was 
nothing  except  scurrilous  of  me,  though  I  truly  don't 
believe  that  he  had  the  remotest  suspicion  about  it. 

I  usually  recollect  conversations  with  infallible  distinct- 
ness, memory  with  me  photographing  sentence  after 
sentence  as  though  her  camera  possessed  an  infinity  of 
plates ;  but  during  that  ride  home  I  remember  no  one 
of  the  trivial  nothings  which  left  mine  and  Melville  De- 
lano's lips  "  on  wings  of  articulate  words."  We  talked 
to  each  other ;  and  that  is  about  all.  Our  speech  was 
but  a  flimsy  disguise  for  the  disturbed  mood  of  either, 
and  evidenced  what  lay  beneath  it  no  less  clearly  than 
the  thin  trembling  earth-crust  of  equatorial  regions  will 
evidence  how  that  colossal  unhatched  vulture,  Earth- 
quake, prepares  to  peck  his  terrene  shell,  and  thrust, 


68  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

perhaps,  the  horror  of  his  ruinous  beak  cracklingly  up 
through  the  heart  of  some  proud  populous  city.  To 
continue  my  rather  ponderous  parallel,  smelling,  Diary, 
so  strongly  of  hyperbole,  nothing  of  a  volcanic  sort 
broke  the  crust  of  Melville's  and  my  own  common- 
places during  all  that  ride  home.  Selina  met  us  in  the 
hall,  as  we  entered  it,  with  a  remark  to  the  effect  that 
she  had  begun  to  feel  very  lonely,  her  sentence  being 
neatly  divided  during  its  delivery  by  an  impulsive  gig- 
gle. We  learned  furthermore  that  mamma  had  returned 
only  a  short  while  before  ourselves  ;  Mrs.  Landesdowne, 
Selina  said,  had  not  been  at  home,  she  believed  ;  any- 
how, mamma  had  spoken  of  getting  back  a  good  hour 
earlier  than  she  had  expected  to  do. 

"  Was  she  very  much  horrified  to  learn  that  we  had 
deserted  you  ?  "  I  asked,  absently,  hardly  hearing  Se- 
lina's  responsive  "  Of  course  not,"  when  she  had  the 
politeness  to  titter  it.  I  was  asking  myself,  just  then, 
whether  it  would  be  the  wiser  plan  to  tell  mamma  all 
that  had  recently  occurred — runaway,  application  for 
succor,  strange  encounter,  and  the  whole  engaging  little 
chapter  of  what  the  advertisements  of  novels  term  "  cu- 
rious developments  ;  "  or  whether  an  entirety  of  silence 
on  these  points  would  form  the  better  plan,  at  least  until 
I  learned  what  course  Melville  meant  to  adopt.  Some- 
thing told  me  (I  suppose  that  something  was  his  som- 
brely set  face,  his  chilled  hardened  pair  of  eyes)  that 
he  meant  to  adopt  a  course  of  Draconian  sternness.  If 
it  were  true  that  he  was  merely  tilting  at  a  windmill, 
then  he  intended  to  tilt  with  all  his  might. 

"  This  way  and  that  dividing  the  swift  mind  "  resulted 
in  a  decision  not  to  go  near  mamma  until  dinner-time  ; 
and  until  dinner-time  we  did  not  meet.  About  ten 
minutes  before  our  dining-hour,  and  whilst  Blanche  was 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  69 

exerting  all  her  Gallic  skill  upstairs  in  my  room  upon 
the  proper  moulding  of  my  sash-bow,  I  heard  a  sound 
of  wheels  outside  which  didn't  leave  me  in  much  doubt 
as  to  whose  wagon  was  making  it. 

He  must  have  gone  upstairs  to  dress  for  dinner  im- 
mediately upon  arriving.  When  I  came  down  into  the 
lower  hall  it  was  quite  vacant.  Entering  the  sitting- 
room  I  found  Selina  there,  with  lugubrious  eyes  turned 
fireward  and  with  evidently  no  curiosity,  to  judge  from 
the  closed  book  in  her  lap,  regarding  the  question  of 
"  Why  Did  She  Desert  Her  Husband  ?." 

"  Mr.  Delano  has  taken  your  mother  into  the  library 
for  a  private  conversation,  I  think,"  she  made  haste  to 
inform  me. 

11  It's  almost  dinner-time,"  I  tried  to  say  carelessly, 
giving  the  clock  a  fleet  glance.  "  Mr.  Dobell  isn't  down 
yet  ?  " 

"  No  ;  I  believe  not." 

Whilst  Selina  was  answering  my  question  I  left  the 
sitting-room  again.  Even  in  these  pages  I  should  pre- 
fer surrounding  with  some  slight  haze  of  uncertainty  the 
fact  of  whether  I  had  any  positive  intent  to  play  eaves- 
dropper or  no,  as  I  approached  the  library  door.  Look 
on  the  bright  side  of  things,  Diary,  and  don't  even  sus- 
pect me  of  the  vileness. 

Indeed,  I  didn't  listen.  We  have  all  heard  the  rather 
sneering  elucidation  of  why  Jack  preferred  a  stomachic 
vacuum  instead  of  his  supper.  And  yet  I  don't  want 
to  sow,  by  means  of  this  assertion,  the  tiniest  seed  of  a 
belief  that  I  would  have  listened  if  I  could.  Idle  dream- 
ers may  concern  themselves  with  what  might  have  hap- 
pened ;  what  did  happen  was  this  : 

Just  as  I  reached  the  library  door  it  became  evident 
from  the  steadily  increasing  loudness  with  which  some 


70  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

sentences  of  mamma's  made  themselves  heard,  that  the 
conversation  between  her  and  Melville  was  nearing  its 
end  and  that  the  library  was  about  being  vacated. 
"  Rest  confident,  Mr.  Delano,"  I  heard  mamma  enun- 
ciate in  her  superbest  manner,  "that  you  have  acted 
with  praiseworthy  promptness  and  wisdom.  I  like  the 
rough  candor  with  which  you  have  put  me  on  my 
guard  against  further  insult.  Pray  accept  my  warmest 
thanks." 

Almost  immediately  afterward  the  library  door  was 
opened  and  forth  swept  mamma  with  unwonted  majesty, 
followed  by  Melville.  I  contrived  to  give  my  nearness 
to  both  people  a  purely  accidental  look,  and  was  just 
feeling  convinced  that  I  had  succeeded  when  mamma 
glided  rapidly  up  to  where  I  was  standing,  wreathed  my 
neck  impetuously  with  one  of  her  black-silk  lace- 
trimmed  arms,  dropped  her  stately  head  on  my  shoul- 
der, and  moaned  out  with  a  splendid  combination  of 
plaintiveness  and  dignity  : 

"My  poor  poor  Helen!  We  have  both  been 
shamefully  deceived."  At  this  I  felt  myself  patted 
flutteringly  on  the  back.  "  But  you  don't  understand, 
my  dear ;  of  course  you  don't  understand.  I  was 
wrong  to  say  anything  about  it."  Then  mamma  dis- 
continued her  statuesque  droop  against  my  shoulder, 
and  made  something  very  like  a  silent  appeal  for  sym- 
pathy to  Melville  Delano. 

It  was  an  absurd  position,  this  standing  there  and  be- 
ing represented  such  an  out-and-out  dove  of  purity  ; 
and  a  remark  to  the  effect  that  I  had  understood  only 
too  well  was  naturally  desirous  of  labial  exit ;  but  I 
drove  the  remark  back,  and  instead  wondered  audibly 
whether  dinner  wasn't  ready. 

We  were  all  seated  at  the  table  when  Fuller  Dobell 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  ^ 

appeared  below  stairs.  He  looked  a  jot  paler  than 
usual,  I  fancied,  on  letting  my  eyes  just  sweep  his  face 
swiftly  as  he  entered  the  dining-room  ;  but  perhaps 
mere  fancy  had  indeed  all  to  do  with  this  conclusion. 
Selina  bowed  to  him  with  vigorous  sociability.  I  am 
quite  sure  that  mamma  averted  her  eyes  from  him. 
Amid  entire  silence  he  took  his  seat. 

There  was  something  solemnly  august  about  that 
silence,  to  my  thinking.  It  had  a  grandeur  of  repri- 
mand much  more  effective  than  our  entrance  into  the 
dining-room  without  our  guest  had  exhibited.  I  am  sure 
it  would  have  awed  Fuller  Dobell  completely  if  Selina 
hadn't  broken  its  sombre  spell  by  prattling  some  pueril- 
ities to  Melville.  The  culprit  promptly,  at  this,  felt 
himself  freed  from  Coventry. 

"I  must  apologize,  Mrs.  Jeffreys,"  he  broke  forth 
courteously,  "  for  being  such  a  straggler  at  the  dinner- 
table.  The  quality  of  your  soup  heaps  coals  of  fire  on 
my  tardy  head  ;  you  ought  to  tear  it  away  from  me  as 
a  punishment." 

Mamma  smiled  an  arctic  smile.  "  We  tread  on  dan- 
gerous ground,  Mr.  Dobell,  when  we  begin  to  suggest 
punishments  for  our  own  misdemeanors." 

His  eyes  dropt  soupward  and  staid  so,  his  next  spoon- 
ful or  two  being  taken  with  rather  nervous  haste. 
Something  like  the  same  guilty  red  that  had  besieged 
his  face  on  the  hotel-piazza  I  saw  it  wear  now.  My 
last  doubt  took  wing  forthwith  ;  he  must  be  culpable ; 
what  was  more,  he  knew  that  mamma  knew.  My 
wrath,  kept  in  leash  heretofore,  felt  its  bonds  suddenly 
cut.  He  had  tried  to  make  me  his  tool  in  the  perpetra- 
tion of  a  gross  insult  to  our  house.  All  those  past  im- 
pressions of  his  latent  contempt  for  us  were  remembered, 
and  grew  deeper  as  I  recalled  them.  I  was  on  mamma's 


72  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

side,  no  matter  how  severe  was  the  course  she  might 
take.  His  very  presence  at  our  table  was  like  a  sting- 
ing jeer  to  me  ;  more  than  once  during  dinner  I  shivered 
as  though  that  presence  had  literally  cast  "  a  chill  across 
the  table-cloth.'* 

Everybody  kept  uriviolated  silence  except  Selina,  for 
a  little  while  :  presently  Melville  and  I  were  delivered 
of  occasional  commonplaces.  But  as  for  mamma  and  our 
interesting  delinquent,  each  remained  worldless  through- 
out the  rest  of  dinner. 

When,  however,  we  ladies  and  Melville  rose  from  the 
table,  mamma  turned  toward  Mr.  Dobell.  Her  voice, 
as  she  spoke,  had  the  "icily  regular"  sound  made  by 
measured  syllables  and  a  metallic  tone.  "With  your 
permission,  Mr.  Dobell,  I  shall  see  you  in  the  library 
some  time  this  evening.  Say  in  about  fifteen  minutes?" 

The  thorough  easeful  suavity  of  his  reply  was  super- 
fine affectation,  if  affectation  indeed.  "  I  shall  be  most 
happy  to  meet  you  there.  You  don't  mind  my  smok- 
ing first,  by  the  bye  ?  Thanks." 

After  leaving  the  dining-room  I  went  straight  up- 
stairs to  my  own,  and  locked  myself  in  and  cried.  It 
wasn't  a  good  candid  cry,  but  rather  a  little  weak  mix- 
ture of  timidity  and  lamentation  very  much  like  a  pro- 
tracted whimper.  If  such  a  thing  had  been  possible  as 
for  any  one  to  ask  me,  just  then,  what  I  was  crying  for, 
no  doubt  I  should  have  indignantly  denied  that  my  con- 
dition had  anything  at  all  lachrymose  about  it,  and  de- 
clared myself  quite  too  angry  for  tears. 

After  perhaps  ten  minutes  of  this  mildly  tragic  em- 
ployment I  went  down-stairs  again,  meeting  Melville  in 
the  hall. 

"  I  was  looking  for  you,"  he  stated,  a  certain  abrupt- 
ness in  manner  and  voice.  "  It  had  occurred  to  me, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


73 


I   can    scarcely  tell   why,  that   I    have   in   some   way 
offended  you." 

"  Did  I  show  you  that  I  thought  so  ?  "  was  my  ques- 
tioned answer.  "  I  meant  to  conceal  my  annoyance. 
Has  the  wrong-doer  met  his  judge  yet,  by  the  bye  ?  " 
pointing  libraryward  as  I  spoke. 

"  Yes — your  mother  and  Mr.  Dobell  are  together,  if 
you  mean  this.  But  pray  state  in  what  way  I  have 
offended." 

I  tossed  my  head.  "  Pshaw  !  your  rushing  to  mamma 
in  that  tell-tale  style  was  a  shallow  performance,  take  it 
all  in  all.  I  am  neither  a  prude  on  the  one  hand  nor  a 
baby  on  the  other :  you  might  have  consulted  me  first 
as  to  what  course  you  should  take." 

He  was  scanning  my  face  narrowly.  "  I  don't  be- 
lieve that  in  your  heart  of  hearts  you  object  to  that 
course." 

"  How  am  I  able  to  pass  reliable  judgment  upon  it  ?  " 
was  my  ready  retort.  "I  don't  even  know  what  pro- 
vocation you  have  received,  except  in  so  far  as  my 
woman's  wit  has  helped  me  to  imagine.  You  have  left 
me  to  guess  everything.  I  will  admit  that  my  im- 
agination may  not  have  gone  a  hair's-breadth  from 
the  truth.  But  anyhow,  you  have  treated  me  like  an 
utter  infant."  All  this  I  pronounced  with  caustic snap- 
pishness,  and  passed  him,  not  waiting  for  his  answer, 
and  feeling  myself  a  wretch  for  condemning  where  really 
there  was  no  valid  reason  to  condemn.  My  conduct 
was  modelled  on  the  same  perverse  plan,  I  suppose,  as 
it  had  been  that  afternoon,  when  he  called  my  name 
twice  before  receiving  an  answer  from  me ;  that  is,  I 
committed  an  injustice  with  the  keenest  sense  of  its 
being  such.  If  the  angels  ever  trouble  themselves  at  all 
to  weep  over  mundane  sins,  very  certainly  it  is  over 
4 


74  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

this  open-eyed  and  cold-blooded  sort  that  they  are  most 
emotional. 

I  suppose  that  mamma  and  Fuller  Dobell  were  both 
closeted  together  for  about  an  hour  ;  and  it  was  an  hour 
during  which  I  felt  more  than  once  an  eager  yearning 
to  go  and  glue  my  ear  against  the  library  key-hole  and 
disgrace  myself  generally  by  the  most  flagrant  kind  of 
eavesdropping.  Fortunately  there  was  a  preventive 
furnished  against  any  such  depraved  inclinations  now  as 
in  a  previous  case  :  Melville  Delano,  instead  of  choosing 
to  occupy  the  sitting-room  in  Selina's  and  my  society, 
sullenly  lolled  with  a  book  upon  one  of  the  hall-lounges. 

At  last  mamma  glided  into  the  sitting-room  with  a 
little  dot  of  color  on  each  cheek,  but  otherwise  lacking 
none  of  her  usual  serenity.  I  wondered  in  what  con- 
dition she  had  left  the  field  whereon  her  battle  had  been 
waged.  Doubtless  the  enemy  was  in  woful  case  by 
this  time. 

Mamma  seated  herself  and  took  out  her  gold  eye- 
glasses and  began  to  read  with  their  assistance.  Mean- 
while I  stole  incidental  glances  across  my  book  at  her 
composed  haughty  face,  and  told  myself  with  savage 
pride  that  she  had  won  a  complete  victory  over  a  cer- 
tain presumptuous  insolent. 

Presently  the  dead  silence  became,  under  existing 
circumstances,  intolerable  to  me.  Selina  seemed,  at 
last,  to  have  found  the  question  of  the  fictional  wife's 
desertion  one  worth  considering  in  Melville's  absence, 
and  I  felt  too  grateful  toward  the  literary  gentleman 
whose  work  had  furnished  me  with  this  nice  composing 
agent,  to  break  its  spell  by  any  remark  directed  Selina- 
ward.  Mamma  was  the  only  one  left  for  me  to  address, 
and  I  accordingly  addressed  her  to  this  effect : 

"  Where  has  Mr.  Dobell  gone,  mamma?  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LTNEN.  75 

She  shot  a  keen  glance  at  me  from  over  the  gleaming 
eye-glasses.  "  I  cannot  answer  that  question,  Helen. 
He  has  probably  gone  to  his  room,  and  will  not  make 
another  appearance  this  evening.  I  would  not,  if  I 
were  he." 

The  cold  austerity  of  mamma's  tones  thoroughly 
roused  Selina,  who  levelled  looks  of  the  most  searching 
inquiry  at  both  of  us  in  turn.  "  She  is  going  to  be  in- 
quisitive," I  thought,  '*  and  I  had  better  get  away  and 
leave  mamma  to  deal  with  her."  And  I  did  get  away, 
but  not  because  of  her  dreaded  inquisitiveness.  Oh, 
no !  rather  because  there  was  a  knot  in  my  throat,  set- 
ting aside  two  little  armies  of  tears  that  were  laying 
silent  siege  to  either  eye ;  because  I  felt  that  whatever 
magnificent  answer  mamma  may  have  given  to  the 
contemptuous  blow  hurled  at  us,  no  answer,  how  mag- 
nificent soever,  could  lighten  my  bitter  load  of  disap- 
pointment, or  lesson  my  mordant  sense  of  having  been 
right  shamelessly  trifled  with. 

I  have  been  up  here  in  my  own  room  ever  since  then, 
giving  my  scribbling  propensities  the  most  untrammelled 
license,  and  stopping  every  once  in  a  while  to  sigh  a 
colossal  sigh. 

No  doubt  he  will  go  early  to-morrow  morning.  I 
suppose  it  would  be  much  nicer  if  he  got  away  before 
breakfast.  Of  course  mamma  will  not  allow  me  to 
notice  him  when,  we  meet  each  other  out  next  winter, 
even  if  I  wanted  to  do  so. 

But  I  don't  want ;  indeed,  indeed  no !  When  I 
think  of  how  he  tried  to  make  me  his  accomplice  in  that 
secret  departure  from  Pineside,  I  feel  like  walking  the 
floor,  not  to  mention  grinding  my  teeth. 

That  person  must  be  an  awful  character.  I  should 
not  be  a  bit  surprised  if  mamma,  who  knows  such  lots, 


y6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

had  heard  about  her  before  Melville  told  his  tale.  What 
a  beauty  she  was  !  I  wonder  how  well  they  knew  each 
other.  She  is  probably  educated  and  all  that — one  of 
the  sorts  of  women  whom  it  makes  only  lovelier  in  some 
men's  eyes  to  be  very  bad.  I  judge  of  her  education 
by  her  handwriting — provided  she  wrote  the  superscrip- 
tion on  that  envelope ;  which  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that 
she  did. 

Perhaps  they  are  very  intimate  and  he  only  came  to 
Pineside  for  the  purpose  of  being  near  her.  If  I  thought 
this,  I  should  go  on  my  knees  to  mamma  concerning 
the  matter  of  making  him  pack  his  portemanteau  in- 
stantly. At  present,  as  there  is  no  such  damning  evi- 
dence in  my  possession,  I  had  better  adopt  the  meeker 
course  of  getting  myself  in  bed. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

|EPT.  27. — It  is  marvellous,  the  mighty  changes 
one  little  day  can  make  in  our  thoughts,  our 
hopes,  our  creeds,  and  all  which  is  portion  and 
parcel  of  what  we  name  life.  I  don't  mean  to  hurl  a 
sermon  at  you,  Diary  ;  I'm  too  happy  to  moralize.  But 
it  really  seems  very  hard  to  identify  myself  with  the 
same  miserable  biped  who  wrote  your  previous  page 
not  many  hours  ago.  I  almost  feel  like  saying  with  the 
man  in  Maud,  after  he  has  killed  Maud's  brother,  "  it  is 
this  guilty  hand." 

Yes,  this  guilty  hand  that  wrote  such  mean  suspicions 
in  you  last  night :  they  were  mean,  as  sure  as  you  are 
morocco. 

I  overslept  myself  this  morning,  as  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  lashing  my  mattress  like  a  whale  and  knead- 
ing my  pillow  like  putty,  for  certainly  three  hours  after 
going  to  bed  last  night.  That  is,  I  incoherently 
snubbed  Blanche  when  she  came  in  to  dress  me  for 
breakfast,  and  didn't  get  up  till  long  after  breakfast  was 
finished. 

Having  drunk  my  coffee  in  solitude,  I  went  to  find 
the  people.  Nobody  seemed  to  be  anywhere.  Going 
from  room  to  room,  I  finally  reached  the  library  and 
pounced  into  it,  notwithstanding  the  closed  door , 


78  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

vacancy  of  rooms  had  begun  to  seem  the  order  of  the 
morning,  and  the  idea  of  finding  this  occupied  hadn't 
occurred  to  me. 

But  it  was  occupied.  Mamma  and  Fuller  Dobell 
were  there.  They  were  seated  on  a  sofa,  quite  close  to 
each  other.  Of  course  there  was  an  ocular  fusillade 
directed  upon  me  in  a  surprised  way,  as  soon  as  my 
pounce  was  accomplished. 

"  Excuse  me,"  I  apologized,  rather  awkwardly,  with 
a  gradual  backward  locomotion.  "  I  was  looking  for 
Selina  and  Mr.  Delano." 

11  They  are  playing  croquet,"  mamma  hastened ;  "  I 
heard  Selina  ask  him  for  a  game  just  after  breakfast." 

ft  Oh,  thanks."  I  commenced  'noddingly  to  close  the 
door,  and  had  in  truth  nearly  closed  it,  when  mamma's 
voice  stopped  me. 

"  I've  a  few  words  for  you,  Helen,  in  a  few  moments. 
Just  go  upstairs,  please,  to  my  room  and  wait  there  till 
I  join  you  ;  which  will  be  immediately." 

I  searched  mamma's  face  with  swift  scrutiny  :  there 
was  no  vaguest  sign  of  anger  upon  it.  As  for  Mr.  Do- 
bell,  the  seal-ring  on  his  little  finger  appeared  suddenly* 
to  have  commanded  his  whole  attention ;  for  which 
reason  his  blond  locks  and  a  segment  of  forehead  were 
all  the  facial  view  I  could  just  then  obtain  of  him. 
Answering  "  certainly,  mamma,"  I  closed  the  library 
door  behind  as  graceful  an  exit  as  I  knew  how  to 
make,  and  went  upstairs  in  deepest  thought,  at  the 
pace  of  a  lame  snail. 

What  could  it  all  mean  ?  Had  there  been  an  expla- 
nation, an  exculpation  ?  On  reaching  mamma's  room,  I 
interred  myself  in  one  of  her  cavernous  cretonne  easy- 
chairs,  and  folded  my  arms  meditatively  and  wondered 
what  was  going  to  happen.  I  had  not  long  to  wonder, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  fg 

Presently   mamma   entered,    closing  the    door    behind 
her. 

-Helen." 

"Well,  mamma." 

"  You  found  me  talking  with  Mr.  Dobell."  She  was 
standing  before  her  dressing-table,  seeing  that  all  was 
well  with  her  gray  puffs.  "The  interview,  my  dear, 
was  of  his  own  making.  I  should  have  been  quite  will- 
ing for  him  to  leave  breakfastless,  if  he  had  chosen  to 
do  so." 

I  had  excavated  myself  from  the  easy-chair  by  this 
time,  sitting  bolt-upright  therein.  ' '  But  instead  of  that, 
mamma,  he  offered  you  some  apology,  I  suppose.  It 
must  have  been  a  rather  flimsy  one,  if  there  was  really 
good  cause  last  night  for  your  own  and  Melville  De- 
lano's indignation." 

She  faced  me,  at  this,  looking  determined  and  abso- 
lute. "There  was  not  good  cause.  Melville  Delano 
was  right  enough,  I  suppose,  only  he  went  too  far. 
That  visit  to  the  hotel  was,  after  all,  only  an  imprudence. 
Of  course  the  woman's  character  is  abominable,  and  of 
course  it  was  an  insolent  act  for  him  to  meet  her.  But 
we  must  remember  one  thing :  had  it  not  been  for  your 
accident,  you  would  have  gone  home  without  a  suspicion 
of  Fuller  Dobell's  bad  behavior." 

I  bit  my  lips  for  a  second,  so  as  to  answer  with  self- 
control.  "Is  that  his  apology?  In  my  opinion,  it 
looks  much  more  like  a  sneer." 

"But  it  was  not  his  apology:  it  is  only  my  sober 
afterthought.  The  man  himself  sees  his  fault  clearly 
and  repents  it  stingingly.  He  offers  no  special  excuse 
except  his  deep  regret,  if  this  may  be  called  one.  I 
can't  blame  you  for  having  condemned  with  heat  and 
haste,  since  I  myself  did  the  same.  But  listen  for  a 


gO  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

moment  to  what  cooler  judgment  ought  to  tell  both  you 
and  me.  Helen,  it  ought  to  tell  us  that  we  have  both 
been  far  too  severe.  A  man  in  Fuller  Dobell's  sphere 
of  life,  and  with  Fuller  Dobell's  advantages,  would  have 
to  be  a  miracle  of  continence  and  modesty  if  he  had 
met  all  his  temptations  without  flinching.  It  is  certainly 
presumptuous  to  believe  him  a  sort  of  white  crow  as  re- 
gards these  matters  ;  let  us  rather  choose  the  sensible 
opinion  that  he  is  no  whit  better,  no  whit  worse,  than 
the  majority  of  publicans  and  sinners  who  make  up  soci- 
ety. .  Allowing  this,  allow  that  the  person  who  sent  for 
him  yesterday  morning  had  some  slight  acquaintance 
with  the  man  whereby  to  justify  in  her  own  eyes,  doubt- 
less, the  brazen  course  she  adopted  ;  and  that  he, 
though  conscious  of  committing  a  gross  discourtesy  to- 
wards us  in  noticing  her  communication — : 

"  Stop  there,  please,"  I  broke  in,  with  face  aglow 
and  eyes  aglitter.  "Is  all  this  anything  more  than  a 
supposition  on  your  part,  mamma?  Do  you  suppose 
or  do  you  know  that  their  acquaintance  is  slight  ?  that 
Fuller  Dobell  had  no  foreknowledge  of  this  woman's 
presence  at  the  hotel,  and  that  the  whole  meeting  was 
partially  the  result  of  accident,  partially  of  careless  dar- 
ing on  the  woman's  side  ?  " 

I  felt  that  as  I  spoke  the  last  word  of  this  question 
my  stretched-out  neck  and  anxiously-creased  forehead 
told  with  what  eagerness  I  craved  the  answer.  But 
mamma's  face  had  grown  hard  and  harsh  by  this  time; 
"  I  cannot  see,  Helen,  how  these  details  can  be  of  any 
consequence  to  you." 

"  But  they  are  of  supreme  consequence  !  "  with  pas- 
sionate voice  I  made  answer.  "If  he  went  there  only 
for  the  reasons  you  have  hinted  at,  then  I  can't  help 
feeling  the  force  of  his  insult  to  me  personally  (me  whom 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  gj 

he  wanted  to  make  his  abettor  in  the  payment  of  that 
secret  visit)  weakened  and  diminished  ever  so  much. 
I  could  pardon  more  easily  than  you,  perhaps,  if  only  I 
knew  what  you  know." 

Mamma's  answer  didn't  come  as  promptly  as  I  might 
have  wished  it  to  come.  Indeed,  I  fancied  that  an  odd 
undecided  look  held  her  face  for  a  moment  or  two,  and 
that  her  few  first  words  lacked  their  speaker's  usual 
direct  pertinence  and  point.  Her  manner  and  voice, 
however,  were  both  softened.  ."  It  was  really  quite 
cruel  of  me,  Helen,  not  to  understand  more  readily  that 
special  facts  regarding  this  affair  are  much  dearer  to  you 
than  any — any  charitable  generalities,  my  child.  And 
after  all,"  mamma  progressed,  with  a  moderate  little 
laugh,  "  very  possibly  I  myself  have  been  more  influ- 
enced by  these  than  by  those.  I  have  learned'  that 
Fuller  Dobell's  objectionable  rendezvous  was  precisely 
as  you  have  well  expressed  it — partially  the  result  of 
accident,  partially  of  careless  daring  on  the  woman's 
side.  All  in  all,  my  dear,  an  imprudence,  an  imperti- 
nence ;  yet  with  none  of  that  unpardonable  element 
which  would  have  resulted  from  some  gross  arrangement 
like  an  assignation  between  them,  or  in  fact  any  under- 
standing whatever,  based  upon  close  previous  intimacy. 
But,  Helen,  dear,  what  are  you  crying  about.?  " 

"  Never  mind,"  I  gurgled,  having  risen  and  begun  to 
walk  the  floor.  "  I  know  I'm  idiotic  to  cry."  Then  I 
stopped  in  front  of  where  mamma  stood,  and  looked  at 
her  with  swimming  eyes  over  a  parapet  of  handkerchief. 
"  You're  sure  of  this,  mamma  ?  " 

"  Quite  certain,"  she  smiled,  her  fingers  glancing 
among  some  flowers  on  a  little  ebony  table. 

"And  he  isn't  gone,  is  he?"  I  grievously  ques- 
tioned. 


82  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Oh,  no.  He  intends  remaining,  of  course.  I  think 
he  would  like  to  see  you  very  much,  Helen.  Why  not 
go  downstairs  at  once,  and  stop  your  crying  before  you 
have  red  eyes  ?  " 

I  did  not  go  down  until  some  time  afterward,  when 
wholly  sure  that  my  eyes  were  above  all  suspicion. 
Selina  and  Melville  were  just  entering  the  house  as  I 
appeared  in  the  hall. 

' 'Oh,  Helen!"  clattered  Miss  Matthers,  on  seeing 
me;  "I've  been  beaten  two  games  so  awfully  !  You 
just  never !  Mr.  Delano  wouldn't  be  induced  to  play 
another.  He  says  it's  because  he  intends  going  very 
soon." 

I  looked  at  Melville  frigidly.  "  You're  going  in  the 
half-past  twelve  ?  " 

"  Yes."  He  was  giving  my  face,  meanwhile,  a  stead- 
fast ransacking  stare. 

I  turned  toward  Selina.  "  Have  you  seen  Mr.  Do- 
bell?" 

Selina  had  not  seen  him.  "  I  wonder  where  he  can 
be,  I  murmured,  saying  the  words  in  an  absorbed  way, 
and  managing  to  discover  with  the  corners  of  my  eyes 
that  Melville  was  doing  his  best  not  to  scowl.  Then  I 
walked  away,  presently  reaching  the  library  door.  It 
was  open.  I  entered  the  library. 

A  fire  was  dancing  in  the  great  hearth-place  with  rud- 
diest vivacity,  making  mobile  mosaics  of  shade  and 
shine  along  wainscoting  and  bookcase.  In  a  great  chair 
wheeled  close  to  the  fire,  with  the  shifting  light  on  his 
blond  head  and  a  ponderous  book  open  in  his  lap,  sat 
Mr.  Fuller  Dobell. 

Whilst  I  came  boldly  forward,  he  rose  with  a  great 
deal  of  awkwardness,  injuriously  holding  the  vast  volume 
by  one  of  its  covers. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  33 

"You  had  quite  a  scholarly  look,"  I  laughed,  address- 
ing the  fire.  "  It's  a  pity  to  disturb  you,  as  I  have  evi- 
dently done." 

' '  Anything  but  that.  I  was  just  beginning  to  get  very 
tired  of  my  solitude.  Will  you  not  sit  in  the  chair  there 
at  your  side  ?  It  opens  its  arms  longingly  for  you." 

Presently  we  had  both  seated  ourselves.  The  pon- 
derous volume  was  lying  at  his  feet,  now.  "What  is 
the  name  of  your  mighty  tome  ?  "  I  questioned,  merely 
to  make  words. 

He  accomplished  a  hasty  dive  toward  it.  "I  really 
can't  say.  I  just  took  it  up,  you  know,  and  opened  it, 
and  then  got  thinking  of  something  else.  By  Jove  !  it's 
a  Greek  lexicon."  After  that  his  deep  deep  and  blue 
blue  eyes  behaved  their  very  tenderest  toward  mine. 
"  You  see,  I  must  have  been  at  mental  sixes  and  sevens. 
It's  always  darkest  before  dawn,  say  the  old  proverbial 
authorities,  and  how  little  I  dreamed  that  you  were 
coming  in  to  terminate  my  perplexity  with  that  pleasant 
face  !  I  thought,  you  know,  that  your  wrath  against  me 
was  something  truly  awful." 

"Well,"  I  just  articulated  and  no  more,  "you  see 
that  you  were  wrong."  Then  a  little  louder:  "Suppose 
we  don't  say  another  word  about  that,  if  you  please." 

"About  what?  Your  imagined  wrath?  I'd  much 
rather,  though."  And  now  his  huge  chair  was  pushed 
appreciably  nearer  my  own  :  I  never  knew  that  those 
library  chairs  of  ours,  by  the  bye,  had  such  eminently 
easy  rollers.  "  It's  a  great  shock  to  me  to  find  you  so 
nice,  when  I  anticipated  dozens  of  cold  shoulders." 

"  A  great  shock  ?  " 

"  Of  pleasure."  At  this  there  came  a  tiny  treble 
sound  from  the  neighborhood  of  his  chair-rollers,  and 
presently  something  touched  my  elbow.  I  didn't  draw 


34  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

my  elbow  away.  "  Do  you  know,"  he  very  softly  went 
on,  "  that  I  was  thinking  about  going  to  you  with  a  for- 
mal good-by,  just  as  you  entered  this  room  ?  It  would 
have  been  formal  even  to  stiff-neckedness,  I  assure  you  ; 
I  am  a  very  bad  hand  at  apologies  and  other  recipes  for 
humble  pie." 

"Well,  well,  there's  no  need  of  an  apology,"  I  hur- 
ried. "To  change  the  subject,  Mr.  Delano  is  going  to- 
day in  the  half-past  twelve  train.  Selina  Matthers  is  to 
be  left  wholly  cavalierless,  unless  you  take  pity  upon 
her.  I  hope  you'll  occasionally  be  nice." 

"  I'm  afraid  you're  asking  too  much,"  he  hesitated, 
with  a  droll  grimace. 

"Pshaw  !  you  must  practise  a  little  fortitude;  it's  a 
lovely  virtue.  One  shouldn't  shirk  every  burden.  Life 
has  its  Selina  Matthers',  you  know,  as  well  as  its — its — " 

"  Helen  Jeffreys',"  he  finished,  with  lips  so  near  my 
cheek  that  his  breath  warmly  touched  it. 

"  Agreeable,  but  angled  for,"  I  laughed,  coloring  a 
little. 

"  I  always  snap  at  tempting  baits.  However,  I  didn't 
mean  to  say  anything  specially  hard  against  your  guest. 
If  she  hadn't  those  abnormal  teeth  and  didrit  gush  so 
and  was  pretty,  and  all  that — 

"Well?" 

"Why,  it  would  make  no  fragment  of  difference  in 
my  manner  toward  her,  I  assure  you." 

"  I  don't  understand,  Mr.  Dobell." 

"No?  Let  me  explain."  (I  wonder  how  many 
inches,  or  rather  how  few,  his  face  was  from  mine,  just 
then.)  "  I  mean  that  I  have  eyes  and  ears  for  only  one 
person  at  Pineside,  and  that  person  is  near  me  now,  with 
the  firelight  playing  over  her  silky  brown  hair,  and  mak- 
ing the  rings  flash  brightly  on  her  dim  little,  slim  little 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  35 

hands.  By  the  bye,  isn't  there  room  for  one  more  ring 
on  a  certain  finger  I  see  ?  A  ring  of  my  giving,  Helen. 
A  ring  that  would  tell  you,  whenever  you  glanced  down 
at  it,  of  how  Fuller  Dobell  had  asked  you  to  marry  him, 
and  of  how  you  had  consented  with  sweet  willingness. 
In  the  name  of  roses  and  peonies  and  everything  else 
that  is  red,  what  makes  you  blush  so  prodigiously  ? 
One  would  think  I  had  already  taken  the  kiss  that  I'm 
going  to  take  now." 

After  that  his  lips  made  a  wfeolly  unprovoked  assault 
upon  my  cheek,  and  staid  there  lingeringly,  clingingly, 
for  one  quick  blissful  second. 

I  ought  to  put  little  stars  after  that  paragraph,  Diary, 
as  they  sometimes  do  in  books,  so  as  to  make  the  situa- 
tion more  effective.  Besides,  it  is  wrong  that  you 
should  create  such  complete  havoc  with  my  most  sacred 
secrets.  I  literally  find  a  diary  rushing  in  where  an 
angel  might  fear  to  tread. 

But  after  all,  what  matters  it  whether  I  put  stars  or 
no  ?  It  is  true  that  he  who  runs  may  read  this  neat 
handwriting  of  mine,  but  as  long  as  Heaven  spares  my 
thumb  and  my  first  finger  I  can  place  a  locked  writing- 
desk  in  the  way  of  any.  such  probability.  And  if  I  die 
so  abruptly  as  to  preclude,  among  other  luxuries  of  the 
moribund,  all  giving  of  farewell  injunctions,  then  I 
flatter  myself  that  whatever  violating  peep  may  be 
taken  into  these  journalistic  mysteries,  the  peeper  must 
smile  whilst  he  frowns,  must  admire  whilst  he  condemns, 
and  speak  of  me  thenceforth  as  one  who  scribbled — not 
wisely  but  too  well.  And  I,  in  truth,  being  numbered 
among  those  of  whom  Swinburne  says,  with  such  de- 
solately beautiful  melody,  that 

"  They  know  not,  neither  can  remember, 

The  old  years  and  flowers  they  used  to  know  " — 


86  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

in  what  manner  shall  it  irk  my  slumber  and  my  silence, 
if  shocked  eyes  read  this  posthumous  record  of  a  certain 
delicious  hour  in  the  library  of  Pineside,  at  a  time  when 
this  tell-tale  hand  shall  be  neither  more  nor  less  than 
the  ashes  of  the  embers  of  the  hearth-logs  which  once 
laughed  their  noiseless  yellow  laughter  a  yard  or  so  from 
our  quiet  beatitude  of  love-making  ? 

No,  I  shan't  put  stars.  Let  me  rather  go  on  to  say, 
that  we  billed  and  cooed  for  a  good  hour,  after  that,  in 
a  manner  which  should  have  made  all  the  turtle-doves 
feel  like  coming  to  school  to  us.  He  bills  and  coos  ir- 
reproachably. He  says  that  he  has  liked  me  ever  since 
we  first  met  at  Newport,  this  summer.  It  was  at  Mrs. 
Crushington's  ball,  and  I  wore  my  lavender  tulle  with 
the  trimmings  of  pansies  ;  and  to  think  of  his  remem- 
bering the  dress  and  going  over  all  its  prominent  points 
with  glibness  enough  to  have  surprised  a  man-milliner  ! 
If  a  straw  will  indicate  how  the  wind  is  deporting  itself, 
surely  by  such  evidences  as  these  one  may  judge  the 
fervor  of  one's  lover. 

Thrilling  with  delight  as  I  was  all  the  time  we  sat 
there,  I  yet  remembered,  every  few  moments  or  so,  how 
suddenly  the  whole  matter  had  come  about,  and  how 
three  days  ago  my  eyes,  had  any  one  prophesied  or  even 
hinted  at  such  a  thing,  would  have  rivalled  saucers,  not 
to  speak  of  soup-plates.  Here  was  the  hand  whose 
softness  and  smoothness  until  now  had  paid  mine 
those  brief  formal  little  visits  of  etiquette  which  meant 
so  absolutely  nothing  whatever,  on  a  sudden  enjoying 
with  it  terms  of  the  tenderest  intimacy.  And  that 
blond  moustache,  too,  of  which  I  had  often  caught  some 
very  near  glimpses  indeed,  but  which  had  seemed  to 
wear,  for  all  this,  a  kind  of  inviolable  dignity — how  odd 
to  feel  its  satin-smooth  luxuriance  meet  my  close-shut 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  g/ 

lips,  or  sweep,  leaving  kisses  in  its  path,  along  my  ting- 
ling cheek. 

I  wonder  what  sort  of  a  joy  it  is  that  a  man  feels, 
when  his  arms  gird  for  the  first  time  the  woman  he 
adores.  I  suppose  it  is  a  sort  of  joy  different  from  what 
the  woman  feels — provided  she  adores  in  return.  The 
one  is  a  joy  of  possessing,  doubtless  ;  the  other  is  a  joy 
of  being  possessed.  And  what  a  strange  new  intoxi- 
cating joy  have  I  found  this  last ! 

I  shan't  ever  forget,  if  I  live  to  be  an  octogenarian, 
the  rapture  I  felt  after  he  had  once  gotten  me  firmly  in 
his  arms  and  hao^  laid  his  lips  to  mine.  If,  in  hours 
previous,  the  possibility  of  any  such  fleshly  union 
occurring  at  any  future  time  has  ever  vaguely  flitted 
through  my  mind,  an  opinion  has  at  once  resulted,  I 
will  admit,  (correspondingly  shadowy)  to  the  effect  that 
I  should  like  it  very  much  indeed.  But  I  never  thought 
then  of  what  the  real  experience  would  resemble ;  of 
how  that  extreme  physical  nearness  to  the  man  she  loves 
will  mix  a  kind  of  silencing  awe  with  a  woman's  delight, 
whilst  breath  and  heart-beat  quicken,  and  her  brain  diz- 
zies itself  trying  to  realize  the  divine  situation.  Awe  : 
that  little  word  is  wonderfully  apposite,  right  here. 
Suddenly  the  beloved  object  is  shorn  of  all  intervening 
distance  ;  whether  Mahomet  goes  to  the  mountain  or 
the  mountain  to  Mahomet,  they  are  together,  notwith- 
standing. Awe  is  a  natural  result.  I  will  not,  of  course, 
speak  for  men,  with  their  multivalve  hearts,  their  mani- 
fold ways  of  loving ;  but  I  will  jump  upon  the  platform 
of  my  own  recent  personal  experience,  and  say  for  my 
own  sex  that  no  member  of  it  ever  loved  really  and 
thoroughly  without  feeling,  when  for  the  first  time 
brought  very  very  near  him  who  has  been  the  inspirer 
of  such  love,  as  if  it  would  be  right  sweet  to  kneel  be- 


88  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

fore  him  and  serve  him  reverentially.  A  woman  never 
loves  what  she  believes  weaker  than  herself;  and  when 
this  power  of  manhood  with  which  she  has  fallen  in  love 
takes  her  in  its  arms  and  purrs  compliments  in  her  ear, 
and  makes  a  charming  travesty  on  its  own  strength,  like 
a  sword  garlanded  with  flowers,  then,  on  the  woman's 
side,  every  feminine  impulse  of  spite  and  malice  and 
contradiction  assumes  the  form  of  a  devoutest  humility. 

We  might  have  sat  there  one  hour  and  have  made  a 
huge  hole  in  the  next,  if  mamma  hadn't  entered  the 
library.  I  don't  know  what  she  suspected,  but  her 
entrance  was  benevolently  heralded  by  several  "  Helen, 
my  dear — s"  before  its  accomplishment.  Fuller  and  I 
(he  has  been  Mr.  Dobell-ed  to,  you  for  the  last  time, 
Diary)  were  posed  very  lukewarmly  by  the  time  that 
mamma  laid  eyes  on  us. 

I  wonder  if  she  divined  the  truth  instantaneously.  I 
suppose  so.  What  with  love-making  and  the  heat  of 
the  fire,  I  am  afraid  that  my  cheeks  were  giving  such  a 
high-colored  account  of  recent  proceedings  as  not  even 
to  tax  the  full  powers  of  a  dull-visioned  physiognomist ; 
which,  by  the  bye,  mamma  verily  isn't. 

"  I  came  to  tell  you  that  Mr.  Melville  is  going, 
Helen,"  she  began,  carelessly  calm  in  voice  and  manner. 
"  He  has  had  his  early  luncheon  and  is  looking  for  you, 
to  say  good-by." 

I  rose  and  left  the  room  without  an  instant's  hesita- 
tion. There  waited  Melville  near  the  front  door,  over- 
coated  and  with  hat  in  hand,  being  babbled  to  by 
Selina.  Somehow  a  pang  of  pity  shot  through  my 
heart,  then.  Doubtless  it  was  because  of  my  own 
supreme  happiness.  Misery  is  a  lover  of  company,  but 
joy  likewise  loves  it  passing  well. 

"You  must  pardon   my   disappearance,"    I   smiled, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LIN-EN. 


89 


drawing  near  him.  "I  half  trusted,  though,  that 
mamma's  persuasions  might  prove  no  less  effective  to- 
day than  yesterday."  . 

He  met  my  smile  with  grave  eyes,  grave  mouth. 
"Well,  you  see  they  haven't.  Is  that  the  reason  you 
wear  so  pleased  a  look,  by  the  bye  ?  " 

Selina  coughed  a  sickly  effete  cough,  and  strolled 
away.  Just  then  wheels  sounded  on  the  drive  outside, 
and  just  then,  also,  mamma  appeared,  advancing  from 
the  library. 

"We  might  as  well  part  good-humoredly,"  I  sug- 
gested, putting  out  my  hand. 

He  smiled,  at  this,  a  sort  of  dull  solemn  smile. 
"  *  Take  hands  and  part  with  laughter,'  as  your  favorite 
Swinburne  advises.  Of  course  you  recollect  the  next 
line  about '  touching  lips  and  parting  with  tears '  ?  You 
look  in  no  mood  for  tears,  however :  and  yet  I  will  not 
be  sure  that  you  haven't  been  touching  lips  with  any- 
one." 

I  scarcely  blushed,  shrugging  my  shoulders  and 
speakjng  with  hurt  dignity.  "That  is  nothing  except 
coarse.  I  didn't  think  you  would  use  such  a  weapon — 
you  who  were  once  my  friend,  and  who  will  be  always, 
I  hope,  at  least  worthy  of  so  ranking  yourself." 

How  rapid  a  change  in  him  those  few  words  wrought ! 
"Once  your  friend!"  he  iterated  with  reproachful 
voice.  "  Treat  me  like  a  friend,  and  you  shall  find  me 
worthy  of  all  trust."  He  spoke  very  quickly,  after  this, 
as  though  trying  to  get  the  words  uttered  before  mamma 
should  attain  hearing-distance.  "  Tell  me,  for  instance, 
whether  you  mean  to  marry  Fuller  Dobell." 

My  answer  came  with  blunt  frankness  :  "I  do — if  I 
can." 

"  An4  you  are  engaged  now  ?  " 


9° 


PUZPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


"  I  suppose  one  might  call  it  so." 

And  then  mamma  was  upon  us.  Melville  made  his 
adieus  with  entire  composure.  If  I  had  really  dealt 
him  a  hard  blow  just  then,  he  had  steeled  his  sinews  to 
meet  it,  poor  fellow,  and  had  in  truth  met  it  valor- 
ously. 

For  a  good  hour  that  afternoon,  Fuller  and  I  behaved 
nothing  unless  sacrificially  toward  Selina.  Later,  I 
blush  to  chronicle  that  we  plotted  a  little  plot,  which 
resulted  in  our  taking  an  immense  Selinaless  walk.  I 
never  knew  before  that  the  brisk  walking  necessitated  by 
cool  weather  would  admit  of  so  much  mutual  lover-like 
deportment  on  the  part  of  two  pedestrians  with  differing 
sexes.  I  somehow  wouldn't  take  his  arm  during  the 
first  mile  or  so,  making  believe  that  my  draperies  needed 
the  complete  manual  attention  of  their  owner.  But 
when  our  steps  had  been  turned  homeward,  and  a  con- 
viction had  possessed  each  of  us  to  the  effect  that  we 
would  both  be  late  for  dinner,  and  I  had  stumbled  once 
or  twice  because  of  the  fleet  pace  at  which  we  were 
faring  ;  and  when  also  the  descended  sun  had  left  all 
the  sky  one  luminous  eerie  bluish  afterglow,  and  the 
sharp-shapen  silver  of  a  crescent  moon  gleamed  keen 
above  lines  of  black  far-away  foliage,  and  a  drowsy 
dreamy  noise,  as  though  twenty  separate  maestro-katy- 
dids were  giving  the  word  of  command  to  as  many 
little  leaf-muffled  orchestras,  filled  the  cool  dark  world 
in  wood-land  or  meadow-land  or  marsh-land, — then 
"it  so  fell  out"  (to  borrow  a  phrase  from  the  coy  sim- 
plicity of  Mother  Goose)  that  my  right  hand  left  off 
caring  at  all  for  the  draperies,  and  crept  confidingly  into 
a  little  loop-hole  of  animated  broadcloth  nearly  as  far 
as  its  elbow. 

"Don't-  you   find   this    arrangement  much   nicer?" 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  gj 

Fuller  wanted  to  know,  after  it  was  about  two  minutes 
old. 

"  It  rests  me  a  little,"  I  admitted,  with  some  delay. 

"  Lean  a  trifle  harder,"  he  coaxed  ;  "  as  if  you  had  a 
flesh-and-blood  arm,  you  know,  and  were  rather  more 
robust  than  a  feather," 

Whereupon  I  did  lean  a  trifle  harder,  and  immediately 
had  that  dizzy  delicious  feeling  which  I  attempted  to 
describe  several  lines  back ;  and  presently  he  stooped 
down,  whilst  were  trotting  along,  and  astonished  my 
cheek  with  a  short  little  stolen  kiss,  and  called  me  an 
obedient  darling.  That  is  the  first  time,  by  the  bye, 
that  he  has  ever  called  me  any  nice  name,  such  as  dar- 
ling. Perhaps  he  fancies  I  don't  like  that  sort  of  lacka- 
daisical thing.  If  so,  he  is  mightily  mistaken  ;  I  adore 
it — from  him.  He  has  such  a  manly  way  of  being  silly, 
and  makes  the  contrast  so  charming  between  the  words 
said  and  the  manner  of  saying  them,  that  I  truly  don't 
think  I  should  do  anything  but  smile  indulgently  if  he 
were  to  address  me  as  "  tootsicum  ;"  which  you  will 
admit,  Diary,  to  be  the  very  land's-end  of  amorous 
nonsense. 

It  is  now  about  eleven  o'clock  P.M.,  and  Fuller  and 
mamma  are  talking  together  on  one  of  the  hall-lounges 
in  the  most  incoherent  sort  of  undertone,  and  Selina  is 
spell-bound,  in  the  sitting-room,  by  the  final  fascinations 
of  her  novel,  and  I  am  trying,  all  alone  by  myself,  to 
perform  the  unperformable  :  such  happiness  as  mine 
can't  be  put  into  black  and  white. 

I  suppose  mamma  is  doing  her  best  to  make  the  re- 
maining days  of  my  spinsterhood  as  few  as  possible.  I 
wonder  if  he  has  said  anything  about  money-matters;  to 
her.  Of  course  he  has  been  compelled  to  do  so,  if  re- 
port tells  truth  and  he  has  really  lost  everything  of 


92  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

his  own.  I  hope  he  hasn't,  by  the  bye.  People  will  say 
that  he  is  marrying  me  for  my  money,  then ;  and  it  is 
just  horrible  even  to  think  of  idle  slanderers  having  it 
in  their  power  to  make  such  a  story  seem  plausible. 

But  pshaw  !  even  if  they  should  seek  to  soil  him  like 
that,  surely  both  he  and  I  can  bear  it.  And  should  the 
least  doubt  ever  cast  the  faintest  shadow  on  my  heart, 
may  I  only  have  to  search  his  loving  eyes  for  surety 
that 

"  The  noblest  answer  unto  such 
Is  kindly  silence  when  they  brawl." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

|EPT.  28. — I  saw  at  breakfast,  this  morning,  that 
mamma  was  yearning  to  level  upon  me  her 
mightiest  cannon  of  congratulation,  and  shortly 
after  breakfast  she  effected  her  purpose  with  entire  suc- 
cess. I  don't  know  what  befell  me  if  I  was  not  bom- 
barded by  approval.  Mamma  evidently  considers  a 
hecatomb  of  fatted  calves  nothing  to  speak  of  when 
viewed  as  my  merited  reward  for  duteous  behavior.  As 
a  rule  she  rather  disdains  cant  than  otherwise  ;  but  this 
morning  I  detected  a  marked  inclination  toward  it :  such, 
for  example,  as 

"  Rest  sure,  Helen,  that  your  married  life  is  to  be 
charmingly  untroubled,  my  dear.  Providence  would 
almost  be  without  the  right  to  inflict  unhappiness  upon 
a  daughter  who  had  followed  motherly  counsel  as  you 
have  done." 

Of  course,  the  correctness  or  incorrectness  of  the 
motherly  counsel  referred  to  was  superbly  taken  for 
granted.  I  bowed  with  wordless  acquiescence  on  hear- 
ing this  valuable  little  suggestion,  as  though  sharing 
mamma's  apparent  conviction  that  Providence  would  do 
well  to  profit  by  it. 

After  having  been  shattered,  so  to  phrase  it,  by  ami- 


94  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

ability  and  approbation,  I  took  the  liberty  of  re-collect- 
ing my  fragments  and  of  re-existing  to  at  least  the  ex- 
tent of  a  question  or  two.  "  I  must  ask  you,  mamma, 
about  yours  and  Fuller's  conversation  of  last  night. 
Was  any  decision  made  ? — anything  important,  you 
know  ?  or  did  you  merely  give  your  consent,  and  all 
that?" 

Mamma  perceptibly  stiffened — the  result  of  habit,  I 
suppose — and  then  perceptibly  softened  again.  ''Yes, 
Helen,  we  decided  one  rather  important  matter.  Your 
wedding-day.  What  do  you  think  of  the  first  of  No- 
vember next  ?  " 

"  Goodness  gracious  !  " 

She  met  my  astonished  face  with  supreme  calmness. 

"  Rather  an  ambiguous  opinion,  my  dear.  Does  it 
mean  that  you  approve  the  arrangement  ?  " 

"It  means  that  I'm  thunderstruck,  mamma,"  I 
blurted  out,  whiningly.  "  Hardly  a  month's  engage- 
ment ! " 

But  the  dictum  was  unalterable.  I  could  merely  offer 
suggestions,  if  I  chose,  giving  what  I  believed  to  be 
good  advice  with  an  outsider's  humility,  like  the  little 
maid  of  Israel  who  waited  on  Naaman's  wife.  Fuller 
wanted  a  short  engagement,  for  one  reason ;  mamma 
infinitely  preferred  it,  for  another.  In  the  matter  of  my 
trousseau  a  little  energetic  haste  would  accomplish  mar- 
vels. It  was  best  that  I  should  speedily  reconcile  myself 
to  the  idea,  provided  any  real  unwillingness  existed. 
As  this  final  suggestion  left  the  maternal  mouth,  I 
clearly  saw  how  worse  than  useless  rebellion  would  bo. 
Besides,  the  glaring  novelty  of  the  announcement  had,  so 
to  speak,  worn  off  a  trifle,  and  already  I  had  begun  to 
think  about  it  with  a  little  catching  of  the  breath,  some- 
thing similar  to  the  sensation  with  which  I  had  thought 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


95 


about  my  initiatory  ball,  during  the  ultimate  and  penul- 
timate weeks  of  social  seclusion.  And  so, 

"  It's  idle  to  spend  strength  on  stone  walls,"  I  at 
length  mumbled,  with  sweet  resignation.  "  And  now 
I've  one  more  question,  mamma.  It's  about  money, 
you  know — Fuller's  money.  Some  people  say  that  he 
has  lost  nearly  everything.  I  should  like  to  know, 
please,  whether  you  referred  to  this  matter  last  night." 

Mamma's  handsome  grayish  eyebrows  were  holding 
an  indignant  meeting  with  each  other  on  the  neutral 
ground  directly  above  her  impressive  nose ;  and  over 
their  gloomy  union  deepened  a  gloomier  frown.  "I 
must  say,  Helen,  that  your  curiosity  amazes  me." 

Then  I  fired  up.  "Surely  I'm  entitled  to  know 
about  the  pecuniary  affairs  of  the  man  I'm  going  to 
marry." 

"  It  would  be  better  taste,"  came  the  sharp  answer, 
"  if  you  left  that  to  me.  I  have  already  told  you  that 
it  is  a  matter  of  no  real  importance  whether  your  means 
of  future  prosperity  are  supplied  by  your  husband  or 
myself." 

"Very  true,  mamma.  But  it  is  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance to  me  whether  I  have  or  have  not  a  knowledge 
of  my  husband's  affairs  previous  to  marriage."  Then  I 
gave  myself  as  grim  a  mouth,  as  square  a  jaw,  and  as 
generally  repulsive  a  look  as  I  know  how  to  extempor- 
ize. "  If  you  don't  tell  me,  I  shall  ask  Fuller." 

I  didn't  look  at  her  whilst  these  words  were  growled 
out :  I  don't  suppose  that  I  dared.  The  most  leonine 
courage  has  its  limits.  It  takes  a  good  many  patriots, 
sometimes,  to  make  one  tyrant  tremble.  A  body  can 
be  brave,  Diary,  without  being  brazen.  Sacred  chron- 
icles do  not  inform  us  that  poor  little  David  cast  any 
self-important  stares  giantward  when  he  marched  against 


gg  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

his  doughty  foe  :  I  daresay,  for  my  part,  that  he  just 
shut  both  eyes  very  tight  indeed  and  let  go  of  his  Script- 
ural pebble,  making  the  whole  affair  one  of  purely  blind 
luck. 

Mamma  began  to  speak,  presently,  and  in  tones 
nothing  less  than  conciliatory,  if  the  term  isn't  a  dese- 
cration. Policy  will  turn  granite  into  wax  very  often, 
and  she  evidently  chose  to  consider  that  her  present 
course  was  one  in  which  a  soft  answer  would  be  alto- 
gether politic.  With  slowly  lessening  amazement,  I 
found  myself  a  listener  to  : — 

"  After  all,  your  claim  is  a  just  one,  Helen  :  I  must 
allow  it.  A  part  of  Fuller  Dobell's  fortune  yet  remains 
to  him,  but  only  a  part.  During  our  conversation  last 
night  he  spoke  on  these  matters  with  mingled  wisdom 
and  self-respect.  He  wished  that  you  should  be  made 
clearly  aware  of  his  recent  losses,  and  in  fact  sought  my 
permission  to  enlighten  you  ;  permission,  however, 
which  was  not  granted." 

Having  received  an  inch  of  concession,  I  grabbed  an 
ell.  "  Your  refusal  seems  very  odd  to  me,  mamma. 
Indeed,  I  can't  help  wondering  how  Fuller  ever  came  to 
ask  permission  at  all." 

"  No  ?  "  There  was  a  tinge  of  the  old  placid  austerity 
about  this  little  questioned  negative.  "Is  it  strange 
that  he  should  believe  you  had  been  brought  up  to  place 
full  dependence  upon  my  guiding-powers  ?  I  think  not, 
Helen.  However,"  reproached  mamma,  "  I  have  no 
wish  to  cast  ill-timed  reproaches.  Fuller  (rely  upon  it) 
will  say  nothing  to  you  concerning  his  present  pecuniary 
status,*  so  to  speak.  Am  I  asking  too  much  of  my 
daughter,  if  I  ask  that  she  will  adopt  a  like  reticence  ?  " 

"  Oh,  of  course  not,"  I  succumbed,  as  gracefully  as 
circumstances  would  permit.  "I'd  marry  him,  you 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


97 


know,  if  he  hadn't  anything  but  a  counterfeit  greenback 
to  bless  himself  withal  ;  and  there  certainly  ought  to  be 
lots  of  pleasanter  subjects  than  money  open  to  discussion 
between  him  and  me." 

Ah,  how  deliciously  nearly  all  the  remainder  of  to-day 
has  proven  this  truth  !  We  have  no  more  talked  money 
than  we  have  talked  hydrostatics.  As  for  poor  Selina, 
(who  leaves  to-morrow,  by  the  bye)  she  has  not  so  much 
as  placed  a  straw  in  our  beatific  way.  I  think  the  sur- 
prise of  hearing  that  Fuller  and  I  are  going  to  marry 
each  other  has  thrown  her  into  a  sort  of  intellectual  stu- 
por ;  her  characteristic  current  of  commonplaces  appears 
frozen  in  its  channel,  and  she  principally  employs  her- 
self in  staring  us  out  of  countenance  and  simpering  ex- 
travagant simpers.  Who  knows  that  she  is  not  stifling 
under  these,  poor  girl,  the  most  tragic  inclinations  pos- 
sible ?  Perhaps  we  remind  her  sufferingly  of  the  absent 
Melville  and  of  what  might  have  been.  I  devoutly  hope 
that  she  isn't  going  to  be  susceptible  all  through  her 
earthly  career ;  for  if  some  well-to-do  dentist,  enthusi- 
astic about  his  profession,  should  really  offer  her  hand 
and  heart,  the  Matthers  are  just  aristocrats  enough  to 
incarcerate  and  bread-and-water  her  out  of  such  a  sad 
misalliance. 

Yes,  our  course  of  true  love,  thus  far  at  least,  has  run 
without  a  ripple.  Now  that  I  recollect,  though,  its  en- 
tire serenity  must  be  objected  to.  A  garter-snake 
(Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  say  a  serpent)  stole  into 
our  Eden  just  before  dinner-time.  Fuller  snubbed  me. 
I  wanted  to  know  whether  he  considered  himself  on 
speaking-terms,  at  present,  with  Melville  Delano,  and 
he  replied  by  manipulating  his  locket  studiously  and 
making  some  guttural  statement  about  female  inquisi- 
tiveness.  Whereupon  I  jumped  up  from  my  seat  with 


98  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

the  rapidity  of  a  jack-in-the-box,  gave  my  panier  one 
or  two  haughty  touches,  made  manual  inquiry  concern- 
ing my  back-hair,  posed  my  head  sideways  in  a  manner 
that  was  archducal,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  heightened, 
narrowed  and  bent  my  shoulders  forward,  crossed  both 
hands  a  little  below  the  region  of  my  sash-belt,  and 
rambled  elegantly  from  the  room. 

I  hadn't  more  than  cleared  the  threshold,  however, 
when  his  arm  strongly  cinctured  my  waist.  After  that 
I  found  myself  being  talked  to  and  kissed  simultane- 
ously. "  Beg  pardon,  Helen."  (Kiss.)  "  I  was  a 
complete  brute."  (Kiss.)  "But  the  fact  is"  (kiss) 
"  that  I'd  just  as  lief  never  have  you  say  anything  to  me 
about  Delano."  (Kiss,  kiss.) 

I  was  propitiated,  somehow.  "Do  you  detest  him 
so,  Fuller  ?  " 

"I've  never  liked  him.  Since  Wednesday  we  have 
not  become  attached  friends,  you  know.  How  about 
that  sonnet  of  Owen  Meredith's  you  promised  to  read 
me  ?  I  must  cultivate  a  decent  liking  for  poetry  before 
next  November  ;  mustn't  I  ?  " 

It  is  very  hard  not  to  pout  a  trifle  when  one's  lover 
pets  one.  I  have  never  had  the  minutest  patience  with 
engaged  girls  who  pout,  but  now  I  begin  to  understand 
the  enormity  of  their  temptation.  I  pouted  then.  "It 
wasn't  a  sonnet  a  bit,  and  it  wasn't  Owen  Mere- 
dith's." 

"  Not  a  sonnet  ?  "  (Kiss  ;  followed  by  deep  investi- 
gation of  turquoise  ring  on  my  third  finger.) 

' '  No  ;  an  idyl,  sir.  You've  such  a  shocking  memory. " 
I — ':he  sensible  I,  Diary  ! — actually  shook  myself  during 
this  observation,- with  a  petulance  worthy  of  bare  legs 
and  a  pinafore,  not  to  specify  loops. 

"Oh,  yes,  to  be  sure;    an  idyl."      (Much  familiar 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


99 


fumbling  with  the  two  little  short-hair  curls  at  my  left 
temple.) 

"  And  not  Owen  Meredith's,  either,"  I  twittered,  with 
peevishness  nowhere  tolerable  outside  a  nursery. 
"  Tennyson's." 

"  Certainly  :  Tennyson's.  I'm  truly  benighted  as  re- 
gards these  matters.  But  you're  a  going  to  work  mira- 
cles in  me,  you  know."  (Kiss,  without  any  cessation 
of  the  fumbling.) 

And  so  we  were  quite  at  peace  again.  I  suppose  he 
means  to  cut  Melville  when  next  they  meet.  I  should 
hate  to  have  him  not  get  my  wedding-cards.  But  that 
concerns  the  future,  and  it  is  very  foolish  policy  to  bor- 
row trouble. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

|CT.  i. — I  shan't  apologize,  Diary,  for  having 
ignored  you  during  two  whole  days.  Your 
leaves  might  have  been  employed  in  '  binding 
a  book,  or  lining  a  box,  or  serving  to  curl  a  maiden's 
locks  '  far  better  than  in  the  very  trivial  task  of  record- 
ing my  own  and  Fuller's  amorous  idiocy. 

Indeed,  there  has  happened  nothing  since  Friday 
which  is  of  a  sufficiently  salient  nature  for  the  historian 
to  grasp  at  and  hold.  Selina's  departure  is  surely  not 
worth  the  wasting  of  many  words  upon  it.  I  trust  that 
in  the  sacred  name  of  hostship  my  grateful  feelings  were 
properly  concealed  at  the  hour  of  farewell.  Mamma 
accompanied  her  to  the  depot.  She  went  away  in  ex- 
cellent spirits,  distance  lending  considerable  enchant- 
ment to  the  glimmer  of  teeth  amiably  turned  towards 
Fuller  and  myself,  just  as  the  carriage  was  disappearing 
on  its  journey  gateward. 

To-day  (Monday)  has  brought  nothing  but  arrivals. 
Grandee  has  trodden  upon  the  heel  of  grandee.  Our 
guests  are  all  of  the  superincumbent  middle-aged  de- 
scription, except  John  Driscoll  and  Fuller.  The  agree- 
able lack  of  congratulations  from  any  source  whatever 
convinced  me,  by  the  time  we  were  all  assembled  at 
dinner  (a  solemnity  of  about  three  hours  in  length),  that 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  IOi 

nobody  had  as  yet  heard  a  syllable  concerning  a  certain 
most  momentous  event.  When,  however,  we  ladies 
had  effected  our  graceful  retreat  before  that  social  bayo- 
net, the  after-dinner  cigar,  and  h^d^f'bu-z^ed  inknots>of 
tajk  "  for  a  little  while  among  ,the  drawing-room 'farni- 
ture,  I  became  aware  that  matipnri ^Vas:  perr&'ttiffg-;  tbfc 
secret  quietly  to  peck  its  shell  of  secrecy,  and  to  burst' 
with  gradual  grandeur  upon  our  marvelling  guests. 
Dowager  by  dowager,  they  had  all  besieged  me,  after 
a  while,  with  their  saccharine  felicitations.  I  couldn't 
help  stealing  a  few  glances  at  mamma  whilst  the  flatter- 
ing ceremony  lasted.  Her  touch  of  heightened  color 
may  have  meant  the  wine  she  had  taken  at  dinner,  or  it 
may  have  owned  origin  a  trifle  more  subtle  than  this. 
Was  it  not  in  truth  with  her  as  with  one  who  has  cloven 
asunder  many  a  difficult  obstructing  door,  and  has 
reached  at  length  the  very  inmost  and  sacredest  cham- 
ber of  success  ?  There  are  victories  and  victories  :  was 
not  this  of  hers  a  victory  so  absolute  and  entire  that  the 
enemy  had  saved  neither  standard  nor  musket  in  their 
ruinous  rout  ?  Fortune  had  emptied  into  her  lap  the 
final  fruitage  of  its  plentiful  horn.  She  had  nothing 
more  to  attain  ;  the  last  crag  had  bruised  her  foot,  the 
last  brier  wounded  it.  Henceforth  her  days  were  to  be 
one  calm  firm  barrierless  level  of  accomplishment. 
And  knowing  what  I  know  of  her  life  and  her  nature, 
involuntarily  my  thought  put  to  my  thought  a  kind  of 
prophetic  question  :  Will  not  her  spirit  feed  on  triumph 
till  it  sickens  thereof,  and  will  she  not  find  in  success  the 
bitterest  of  all  failures  ?  There  are  some  spirits  that 
languish  miserably  except  when  they  breathe  an  atmos- 
phere of  struggle  and  strife.  Effort  is  a  very  water  of 
Meribah  to  them.  There  isn't  much  chance,  I  fancy, 
of  mamma  proving  a  very  contented  Alexander  when 


102  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

she  has   found   herself  with   no   more  worlds   to   con 
quer. 

The  male  grandees  strolled  in  one  by  one,  before 
long",,  -most  of  thetfri  looking  the  rosier  for  their  recent 
convivialities,  besides  bearing  pungent  suggestions  of 
thcht*  .{iayjtf.g ;.  smoked , the  dining-room  into  a  fog.  John 
'Driscoll  and  Fuller  were  late  in  coming,  and  at  last  en- 
tered together.  By  the  bye,  I  wonder  how  my  name 
ever  escaped  being  added  to  the  list  of  John  Driscoll's 
conquests.  I  never  look  at  him  nowadays  without 
feeling  a  pardonable  pride  that  this  should  have  been 
thus.  Grace  and  girth  unite  so  admirably  in  his  six 
good  feet  of  humanity  :  then,  too,  that  patrician  head 
of  his,  with  its  delicate  little  ears,  and  its  crisp  short 
curls  dashed  with  gray,  always  had  such  charms  for  me, 
not  to  mention  his  grave  hazel  eyes  and  his  martial  sort 
of  moustache,  so  thorough  a  match  to  the  gray  curls.  I 
daresay  nobody  ever  believed  that  I  wasn't  demented 
about  him  in  the  days  when  we  saw  so  much  of  each 
other  ;  but  to  you,  Diary,  who  take  so  many  of  my 
statements  without  the  suspicion  of  a  salt-grain,  I  can 
offer  this  statement  in  a  spirit  of  pleasant  security. 

Presently  John  Driscoll  and  I  found  ourselves  popu- 
lating a  corner  together,  with  Fuller  nowhere  visible. 
"  I  suppose  you've  heard  about  it,"  were  my  first  words, 
pronounced  with  matter-of-course  kind  of  languor. 

"It?" 

"My  engagement.  You  don't  mean  to  say  that 
Fuller  hasn't  told  you  ?  " 

"No,"  he  murmured  gravely,  his  eyebrows  compos- 
ing themselves  after  a  leap  of  amazement.  "  Not  to 
Fuller  himself?" 

"  Yes,"  I  blushed,  rather  engagingly,  "to  Fuller, 
and  nobody  else."  Then  the  solemn,  drawn-down  look 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

about  his  forehead  almost  frightened  me,  and  I  laid  my 
hand  on  his  arm.  "  What  is  there  in  my  piece  of  news 
that  should  displease  you,  Mr.  Driscoll?" 

He  seemed  an  atom  or  so  flurried  after  that,  and  at- 
tempted something  which  looked  like  the  eighth  cousin 
of  a  smile.  "  Pray  don't  fancy  that  I'm  displeased;  " 
and  then  he  took  my  hand.  "  But  I  do  not  think  that 
in  all  my  thirty-five  years  of  mortality  I  ever  recollect 
being  more  amazed." 

"  That's  very  odd,"  I  commented.  "  You're  such  an 
intimate  friend  of  Fuller's.  Didn't  you  believe  that  he 
cared  about  marrying  ?  " 

"No;  I  believed  the  precise  opposite.  But  man 
proposes,  maid  disposes,  quite  often.  You  are  staring 
very  hard  at  me,  Miss  Helen." 

"  I  know  it.  I  don't  like  the  corners  of  your  mouth, 
somehow.  Be  candid  in  answering  a  question  for  me, 
won't  you  ?  " 

"  Certainly."  He  dropped  his  eyes  after  a  quick 
glance  at  my  face. 

"This  morsel  of  news  did  something  more  than  sur- 
prise you,  did  it  not?  I  mean  that  it  displeased  you 
as  well." 

"  No,  no,"  he  rattled  off  at  fleetest  speed,  the  brisk- 
ness of  tone  being  quite  characteristic  of  the  man. 
"  You  are  very  sadly  mistaken — please  believe  so." 

Just  then  ponderous  male  grandee  number  fourth 
came  beamingly  up  to  me,  looking  from  sole  to  crown 
one  grand  anxiety  to  congratulate.  When  I  saw  the 
next  meeting  between  John  Driscoll  and  Fuller  it  was 
observed  from  something  of  a  distance.  Fuller's  back 
was  turned  from  my  view.  I  saw  John  Driscoll  take 
his  hand  and  say  a  few  words  with  what  seemed  the 
emphasis  of  earnest  feeling. 


IO4  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Oct.  4. — Here  is  Thursday,  and  to-morrow  the  last 
of  their  highnesses  will  depart  townward.  Fuller  left 
this  morning  with  John  Driscoll.  There  are  to  be  three 
miserable  days  before  we  meet  again,  and  then  we  shall 
very  possibly  take  the  first  of  our  many  many  kisses  of 
greeting  among  metropolitan  surroundings.  Mamma 
purposes  leaving  Pineside  on  Monday  next.  I  wish 
this  week  was  a  kind  of  diurnal  deformity,  and  didn't 
have  any  Friday,  or  Saturday,  or  Sunday.  Fuller's 
absence  is  so  desolating  !  I  miss  him  as  much  as  if  we 
had  been  outgrowing  our  hair  and  teeth  together  in 
wedded  bliss  at  Pineside  for  the  past  seventy  years. 
The  day  before  he  left  I  made  him  go  to  the  village 
with  me  and  be  photographed.  The  operator  was  a 
young  man  with  oily  black  curls  and  the  patience  of 
several  seraphim  ;  but  I  nearly  drove  him  mad,  for  all 
this,  by  my  interminable  fault-finding.  The  result  of 
his  countless  efforts  to  gain  my  difficult  favor  is  an  en- 
tirely unpleasing  tin-type.  But  it  is  supremely  better 
than  nothing.  I  treat  it  just  as  I  would  treat  a  phial  of 
Belladonna,  or  any  other  portable  medicine,  keeping  it 
in  my  pocket  always,  and  touching  my  lips  to  it  once 
every  hour,  by  the  watch.  Sometimes  I  take  over- 
doses, one  every  half-hour,  and  find  that  they  don't  spe- 
cially disagree  with  me.  Now  and  then  I  try  to  forget 
that  it  is  tin,  and  talk  to  it.  A  little  while  ago  I  actu- 
ally cried  over  it,  and  my  emotion  resulted  in  giving  it 
a  scandalous  -stain  on  the  left  cheek,  besides  a  soiled 
shirt-bosom.  This  will  never  do ;  Fuller's  linen  is 
always  so  flawless.,  and  his  complexion  a  seek-no-further. 
I  must  hold  in  check,  hereafter,  my  "  tears,  idle  tears," 
or  at  least  let  them  drop  on  a  handkerchief  instead  of 
desecrating  that  hallowed  tin. 

Of  course  I'm  the  perfection  of  a  goose  to  feel  like 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


105 


this,  apart  from  the  depraved  folly  of  writing  so.  And 
he  is  probably  bearing  our  separation  at  the  present 
moment  (about  ten  and  a  half  P.M.)  with  the  kind  of 
resignation  that  permits  him  to  smoke  and  drink  and 
play  cards  at  the  club,  as  though  there  wasn't  any 
Pineside,  any  awful  void  made  there  by  his  absence, 
any  poor  lonely  longing  Me  having  a  chronic  tear  in 
my  eye  of  equal  importance  with  the  legendary  Susan- 
nah's, though  differing  from  that  heroine  of  song  in  one 
memorable  respect :  I  haven't  the  appetite  for  a  rose- 
leaf,  throwing  a  buckwheat  cake  totally  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. 

To  judge  from  the  devoutness  of  Fuller's  farewell 
promise,  I  should  suppose  that  nothing  except  death  or 
an  earthquake  will  prevent  him  from  posting  a  nice 
long  letter  to-night  in  time  for  it  to  reach  me  by  the 
morning-mail.  He  will  be  sure  to  have  his  letter  for 
breakfast :  I  had  written  it  and  sent  it  to  the  post-office 
three  hours  after  his  departure. 

Dear,  dear !  I  am  debasing  myself  by  the  scripture 
of  these  weightless  platitudes.  I  don't  think  I  shall 
touch  you  again,  Diary,  till  we  are  back  in  New  York. 

5* 


CHAPTER  IX. 

|CT.  8. — And  I  haven't  touched  you.  Mamma 
and  I  reached  town  this  morning.  Not  two 
hours  after  our  arrival  who  but  Fuller's  only 
sister,  Mrs.  Louis  Walters,  should  call  upon  me  ?  Of 
course  I  was  at  home  to  her,  though  Fuller's  recent 
failure  in  the  matter  of  meeting  us  at  the  depot,  and  his 
continued  non-appearance,  had  put  me  in  no  very, 
angelic  humor. 

I  have  never  liked  Mrs.  Walters,  but  I  liked  her  tem- 
porarily at  least,  whilst  she  was  holding  both  my  hands 
in  both  her  lavender-gloved  own,  and  saying  all  sorts 
of  pleasant  musically-spoken  things  about  the  engage- 
ment. "  Such  a  surprise,  too,  my  dear,"  she  finished,  in 
her  cooing  kittenish  way.  ' '  Fuller  tells  me  that  you  fell 
in  love  with  each  other  this  summer  at  Newport." 

"  Yes,"  I  assented,  adding  rather  shyly  :  "  I  suppose 
I'm  privileged  to  speak  for  both  of  us,  by  the  bye." 

"  Of  course."  Then  her  ruddy  mouth  changed  its 
chronic  lazy  smile  into  a  broad  beaming  laugh,  that 
showed  how  bright  a  white  her  teeth  were.  "  The  idea 
of  Fuller  married  !  It  does  seem  so  immensely  queer. 
Are  you  going  to  make  him  settle  down  into  a  complete 
family-man,  and  read  to  you  evenings  and  all  that,  you 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


ID/ 


know  ?     I  do  hope  you  will.     I  shall  take  such  bliss  in 
poking  fun  at  him." 

I  tried  to  laugh  in  answer,  not  entirely  succeeding, 
though.  All  the  world  understands  how  little  married 
Cornelia  Walters  has  ever  been,  averaging. about  one 
notorious  flirtation  every  six  months,  and  turning  wife- 
hood,  not  to  speak  of  motherhood,  into  the  ghastliest 
kind  of  a  burlesque.  It  worries  me  whenever  I  think  of 
Fuller's  fondness  for  this  woman.  It  is  my  private  be- 
lief, privately  expressed,  that  she  has  about  as  much 
moral  principle  as  a  mouse.  She  is  assuredly  lucky  in 
one  particular  :  certain  would-be  Samaritans  say  that 
her  husband  sets  her  the  devil-may-care  example.  As 
if  such  an  assertion  could  exonerate  her  one  tittle  !  I 
wish  Fuller  would  realize  what  horrible  style  she  is. 
He  always  laughs  with  a  kind  of  cordial  indolence 
whenever  her  name  is  mentioned.  He  seems  to  consider 
her  a  delicious  inexhaustible  joke ;  but  to  my  thinking 
her  capers  carry  a  most  sombre  suggestion  of  tragedy. 
Fuller  certainly  owes  society  such  a  trivial  compliment 
as  to  feel  ashamed  of  her,  since  beyond  any  doubt  she 
hasn't  the  slimmest  idea  of  ever  feeling  ashamed  of  her- 
self. 

Mamma  came  in,  presently,  and  presently,  I  rejoice 
to  state,  my  recreant  swain  also  entered  the  room.  I 
took  the  liberty  of  forgetting  all  about  Mrs.  Walters  or 
mamma  either,  for  a  few  seconds,  and  of  interlarding  my 
copious  kisses  with  quite  a  number  of  thrilling  rebukes. 
"  Not  at  the  depot!"  I  concluded,  with  a  hand  in  his 
and  an  arm  about  his  neck,  "  and  not  here  when  we  got 
here  !  I  didn't  expect  it  of  you,  Fuller." 

"  But  you  knew  I  wasn't  dead,  or  anything,"  he 
affirmed,  with  gentle  nonchalance. 

"  I  didn't  know." 


I08  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"Then  you're  a  goosie." 

"Fuller,  I  am  waiting  for  some  vague  evidence  on 
your  part  that  we're  acquainted,"  reproached  his  sister, 
with  an  immense  deal  of  melancholy.  "  Mrs.  Jeffreys, 
if  I  mistake  not,  is  showing  a  similar  patience." 

She  staid  to  lunch,  as  I  was  sure  that  she  had  intended 
to  do  from  the  first.  Somehow  I  felt  all  the  while  she 
was  there,  as  if  Fuller  and  I  had  somebody  standing  be- 
tween us  and  quietly  pushing  us  apart.  She  takes 
liberties  with  him  that  I  would  not  dare  to  take.  She 
says  her  mocking  clever  extravagant  things  about  his 
deeds  and  misdeeds  generally,  and  he  joins  in  her  laugh- 
ter with  the  saintliest  sort  of  good-humor.  "  Every- 
body I've  met  for  the  past  three  days,"  she  informed 
him,  as  little  awed  by  mamma's  presence  as  though  a 
crone  of  eighty  were  presiding  at  table,  "is  rabidly 
anxious  to  see  you.  I  don't  think  you  would  have  sur- 
prised people  one  whit  more  if  you'd  committed  suicide. 
You  and  Helen  are  to  be  just  pelted  with  dinner-invita- 
tions— mark  my  words — although  there  is  really  nothing 
going  on  at  present  in  the  way  of  festivities.  Society 
intends  taking  a  good  long  stare  at  you  through  its 
most  powerful  eye-glass.  Just  now  you're  both  supply- 
ing huge  material  for  small-talk :  I  daresay  that  you 
rank,  in  this  respect,  second  to  nothing  except  the 
weather." 

"  And  what  is  the  prevailing  opinion  about  our  en- 
gagement? "  I  struck  in,  determined,  if  possible,  to  stop 
these  rollicking  personalities  on  the  homoeopathic  prin- 
ciple that  '  like  cures  like.'  "  Do  they  say  that  Fuller  is 
in  love  with  me,  or  that  he's  merely  marrying  for 
money?  " 

Dead  silence  followed.  Mrs.  Walters  became  wine- 
color.  Fuller  stared  at  me  with  knit  brows.  "  Of 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

course,  you  know,  Helen  is  only  joking,"  presently 
meandered  mamma,  at  whom  I  had  not  dared  to  look. 

"  Oh,  of  course,"  giggled  Mrs.  Walters,  with  a  ner- 
vousness not  precisely  characteristic.  But  I  had  killed 
her  little  pleasantness  for  the  time,  at  least,  clumsily 
crushing  as  the  blow  had  been. 

Fuller  did  not  speak  to  me  until  nearly  an  hour  after- 
ward, when  we  were  alone  together.  And  then  his 
opening  remark  must  be  called  a  complete  growl.  "  I 
should  like  to  ask  your  motive,  Helen,  for  having  made 
a  certain  speech.  You  know  very  well  what  I  mean." 

"  Certainly."  We  were  together  in  the  little  recep- 
tion-room on  the  ground-floor.  Being  seated  near  the 
window,  I  delivered  my  reply  with  gaze  Fifth  Avenue- 
ward.  "There  goes  Emily  Lester.  What  compromis- 
ing bonnets  that  girl  wears." 

"  Do  you  refuse  to  answer  my  question  ?  "  rumbled 
Fuller,  very  sternly. 

I  faced  him,  at  that.  "  Not  at  all.  I  said  it  to  make 
your  sister  stop  her  flippant  fun-poking."  Then  my 
voice  began  to  quiver.  "  I  know  she  thinks  I  struck 
a  home-truth.  She  doesn't  believe  that  you're  in  love 
with  me  one  iota ;  I  saw  it  in  her  eyes.  She  thinks  you 
a  mere  mass  of  worldliness,  like  herself." 

I  had  expected  that  the  tears  in  my  voice  would  be 
commandant  to  him  as  far  as  concerned  a  tender  reply ; 
but  he  only  softened  the  least  in  the  world.  V  You 
mustn't  call  Cornelia  hard  names ;  I  can't  hear  them, 
you  know,  Helen.  She  has  always  been  a  good  sister 
to  me,  and  I  am  thoroughly  fond  of  her." 

I  didn't  care  for  his  severe  manner,  now.  I  was  burn- 
ing to  have  him  deny  that  my  belief  regarding  his  sis- 
ter's opinion  of  our  engagement  had  been  anything  ex- 
cept ill-founded.  "  The  fact  of  your  liking  anybody 


HO  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

would  of  course  be  enough  to  seal  my  lips  against  all 
detraction,  Fuller — would  be  another  reason,  indeed, 
for  me  to  try  and  change  my  own  dislike  into  its 
opposite.  But  then  you  can't  deny,"  I  added,  with  il- 
logical eagerness,  "that  what  I  believe  about  Cornelia 
Walters'  opinion  is  quite  correct." 

"  She  is  entitled  to  her  own  opinion."  He  took  out 
a  cigarette.  "Your  mother  lets  people  smoke  here, 
doesn't  she  ?  " 

"But  have  you  no  wish  to  undeceive  your  sister?" 
I  hurried.  Then  excitement  made  my  voice  almost 
give  way,  yet  whilst  he  looked  round  at  me  with  amazed 
eyes,  I  managed  to  continue  :  * '  Are  you  willing,  Fuller, 
that  any  one  you  like  should  believe  so  contemptibly  of 
you  ?  " 

Just  as  he  had  flushed  to  the  roots  of  his  hair  on  that 
hotel-piazza  when  I  met  him  with  that  beautiful  Atrocity, 
whoever  she  was,  so  to  the  roots  of  his  hair  did  he  flush 
now.  But  that  was  a  guilty  flush  ;  at  least  I  so  set  it 
down.  As  for  this,  I  don't  know  wherefore  I  waste 
paper  in  stating  that  it  meant  only  surprise  at  my  un- 
anticipated imperative  question.  What  else  could  it 
possibly  mean  ? 

And  yet  somehow  I  began  to  tremble  nervously. 
Before  I  actually  knew  what  I  was  doing,  the  distance 
between  us  had  lessened  to  a  noteworthy  extent,  and  I 
was  stooping  over  him,  with  my  cheek  laid  upon  noth- 
ing else  but  the  crown  of  his  blond  silky-haired  head, 
and  my  arms  girding  his  torso  a  trifle  below  the  shoul- 
ders. 

"  Oh,  Fuller,"  I  began  to  bleat,  "  of  course  I'm  non- 
sensical and  everything,  but  please  tell  me  you  love  me, 
and  will  never,  never  tire  of  loving  me.  I  have  grown 
to  need  your  love  so,  all  on  a  sudden  !  I  can't  help 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  Iu 

making  a  simpleton  of  myself  whenever  I  think  of  this. 
You  do  adore  me,  don't  you  ?  If  I  were  Miss  Smith, 
with  nothing  a  year  except  what  I  made  out  of  my  sew- 
ing-machine or  even  my  wash-tub,  and  you  knew  me  as 
well  as  you  know  me  now,  you'd  marry  me  just  the 
same,  wouldn't  you,  Fuller  ?  " 

After  that  (to  be  strictly  consistent  with  my  new 
character  of  simpleton,  I  suppose)  I  got  crying  ridicu- 
lously. And  whilst  I  cried  I  hugged  him  the  tighter 
and  the  tighter,  till  presently,  as  if  for  proof  that  he  was 
not  being  smothered,  he  found  a  tongue  to  this  effect : 

"  Pray,  Helen,  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  my  profes- 
sions for  once  and  for  all.  Is  your  faith  in  me  built 
upon  so  slight  a  foundation  that  the  least  chance  breath 
can  shake  it?  " 

Now  this,  it  must  be  owned,  was  severely  stilted  for 
Fuller,  who  usually  adopts  an  off-hand  haphazard 
style  toward  the  most  momentous  matters  ;  and  conse- 
quently, for  the  very  reason  that  he  had  chosen  so  un- 
characteristic a  method  of  answering  me,  I  felt  convinced 
of  how  much  deep  sincerity  underlay  his  words.  All 
women  are  terribly  prone  to  use  hyperbole  when  they 
speak  of  their  lovers  ;  and  yet  I  can't  help  saying,  that 
I  seemed  now  to  have  caught  a  happy  precious  glimpse 
beyond  the  careless  languid  exterior  Fuller  straight  into 
the  Fuller  that  lay  beyond — large-hearted,  honorable, 
and  unwaveringly  constant. 

There  is  no  use  in  describing  the  halcyon  result  of 
this  discovery.  He  left  this  afternoon  but  came  again 
in  the  evening,  and  has  finally  parted  from  me  on  the 
most  blissful  of  terms — not  "all  my  lover,  half  my 
friend,"  but  as  much  of  one  as  of  the  other. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  evening  we  had  quite  a  flock 
of  visitors ;  the  majority  of  them,  as  I  couldn't  help 


H2  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

snobbishly  observing,  represented  men  to  whom  mam- 
ma's social  countenance  was  of  rather  precious  import. 
All  potentates  must  have  their  satellites  and  their  un- 
derlings, I  suppose ;  lesser  fishes  swim  in  the  wake  of 
large  ones. 

Fuller  and  I  treated  the  guests  with  a  fair  amount  of 
exclusive  indifference,  and  I  am  afraid  that  I  received 
some  of  their  pretty  speeches  concerning  my  engage- 
ment with  a  bored  manner  that  just  grazed  discourtesy. 
Somehow  I  don't  care  a  fig  for  society  any  more.  I 
wish  Fuller  would  live  in  the  country  after  we  are  mar- 
ried, or  else  ransack  all  the  obscurest  ins  and  outs  of 
Europe  with  me,  and  let  all  the  nabobs  in  all  the  capi- 
tals of  the  world  dine  and  dance,  flirt  and  flatter,  strut 
and  stoop,  in  forgetfulness  that  we  ever  moved  amid 
their  profitless  masquerade. 

But  even  if  Fuller  should  sanction  any  such  post- 
matrimonial  programme,  mamma  would  veto  it,  de- 
nounce it,  do  battle  against  it.  So  for  the  present  I  had 
best  hold  my  tongue — and  wait. 


CHAPTER  X. 

|CT.  10. — Mrs.  Walters  has  prophesied  with,  the 
skill  of  a  real  sibyl.  Fuller  and  I  are  being 
literally  inundated  with  dinner-invitations. 
Mamma  decides  what  ones  we  are  to  accept.  I  am 
happy  to  chronicle  that  she  is  going  to  let  me  occasion- 
ally dine  at  home.  My  wedding-day  has  been  fixed  for 
the  first  of  November.  I  am  to  be  married  very  pub- 
licly in  white  silk  and  point-lace.  I  wonder  if  I  shall 
make  a  brave  bride  as  I  march  into  church  on  Louis 
Walters'  arm,  with  mamma  and  Fuller  following.  I  wish 
Fuller  wasn't  fatherless  and  brotherless.  I  somehow 
hate  the  idea  of  going  to  the  ^Itar  on  that  sacredest 
loveliest  most  revered  mission,  with  frivolous  blond- 
whiskered  Louis  Walters,  whose  married  life  has  always 
been  such  a  monstrous  mockery. 

I  am  to  have  four  bridemaids.  They  were  all  asked 
yesterday  by  mamma,  and  have  all  accepted,  as  I 
learned  this  morning.  I  couldn't  and  didn't  restrain  a 
smile  of  amusement  when  she  gave  me  their  names ; 
they  make  such  a  four-square  tower  of  social  supremacy. 
First,  Susie  Montgomery ;  second,  Belle  Dillinger ;  third, 
Margie  Cartwright ;  and  fourth,  Kate  Efrmgham.  It 
has  also  been  decreed  that  we  are  to  marry  each  other 


114  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

without  the  important  assistance  of  groomsmen.     So 
much  for  nuptial  statistics. 

We  went  to  a  great  dinner  this  evening,  at  Mrs. 
Montgomery's.  I  was  beamed  upon  and  made  much 
of  all  through  its  eternity  of  courses,  but  couldn't  enjoy 
my  sovereignty,  in  spite  of  a  conscientious  effort  to  do 
so.  Last  year  I  would  have  thrilled  under  this  sort  of 
thing  :  truly  love  works  wonders,  and  "  time  turns  the 
old  days  to  derision."  I  managed  to  make  Fuller  go 
away  with  me  a  good  half-hour  earlier  than  the  correct 
time  for  going.  But  we  had  scarcely  attained  the  quiet 
and  seclusion  of  the  little  reception-room  at  home,  be- 
fore he  gave  signs  of  deserting  me.  I  was  bitterly 
piqued,  though  I  tried  not  to  make  my  pique  at  all  evi- 
dent. Perhaps  if  I  had  done  this,  he  would  have  staid. 
As  it  was,  he  went.  No  doubt  he  went  to  the  club.  I 
wish  New  York  was  a  clubless  city,  though  in  that  case 
very  probably  Satan  would  find  some  mischief  still  for 
idle  men  to  do. 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  Melville  Delano  was  at  Mrs. 
Montgomery's  this  evening.  Just  before  dinner  was 
announced,  he  came  up  to  me  and  said  a  few  unimpor- 
tant things.  Fuller,  glancing  at  us  from  an  opposite 
sofa,  seemed  as  unconcerned  as  if  I  had  been  associat- 
ing with  one  of  his  bosom-friends.  Considering  that  he 
detests  the  man  and  has  proscribed  his  name  from  our 
conversation,  it  would  have  been  only  consistent  for  him 
to  frown  a  trifle.  I  shan't  believe  that  his  serenity  had 
anything  to  do  with  indifference. 

Well,  well,  I  am  out  of  sorts,  somehow.  Do  you  like 
me  in  the  role  of  a  grumbler,  Diary  ?  No  ;  I  am  sure 
not.  Suppose  I  resolve  not  to  touch  you  again  till 
I  can  write  pleasant  things  in  you  ? 

Oct.  1 6.— More  journalistic  neglect.     But  then  a  girl 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  Tl$ 

who  is  beset  with  dress-makers  and  milliners  and  other 
such  troubles  as  haunt  the  last  hours  of  spinsterhood, 
can't  be  expected  to  show  herself  much  of  a  scribe  into 
the  bargain.  There  was  not  enough  time,  mamma 
thought,  for  my  trousseau  to  be  gotten  up  in  Paris,  and 
so  we  have  patronized  domestic  tradesmanship  ;  al- 
though, by  the  bye,  this  immensity  of  preparation  is 
quite  ridiculous.  Mamma  seems  wholly  to  forget  that  I 
have  not  been  altogether  raimentless  up  to  the  present 
time.  She  is  having  coals  carried  to  Newcastle  at  the 
rate  of  several  tons  per  day.  What  a  godsend  the  Mes- 
dames  That,  This,  and  The  Other  must  consider  her  ! 

Writing  of  mesdames,  I  am  reminded  that  I  received 
a  congratulatory  visit,  this  morning,  from  my  old  school- 
mistress, Madame  Langlois.  It  is  like  standing  under  a 
shower-bath  of  sugar-plums  nearly  all  the  time  that  she 
talks  to  me.  Mademoiselle  had  lost  nothing  of  her 
delightful  brunette  beauty  ;  Mademoiselle  still  preserved 
her  charming  dimples ;  Mademoiselle's  marvellous 
French  accent  had  suffered  not  the  least  change  through 
want  of  practice  :  and  so,  "  trippingly  on  the  tongue," 
through  sentence  after  sentence.  Madame's  amiability 
attained  a  climax  when  I  showed  her  my  engagement- 
ring  (a  beautiful  scintillant  solitaire,  by  the  bye).  If 
it  had  been  the  Koh-i-noor  her  praises  would  have 
sounded  extravagant. 

Her  school  was  never  more  prosperous,  she  told  me  ; 
and  then  burst  forth  into  eulogiums  upon  a  certain 
boarding-pupil,  a  Miss  Tremaine,  age  about  fourteen, 
birth-place  Baltimore,  beauty  angelic.  No  stranger 
ever  saw  this  divine  little  creature  without  admitting 
that  she  ravished  them.  Would  not  she  prove  an 
inducement  for  me  to  honor  her  school  with  my  pres- 
ence, some  day  ?  Adele  was  usually  guarded  from 


1 1 6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

visitors  through  a  fear  on  the  part  of  her  discreet 
instructress  that  vanity  might  steal  into  her  charming 
nature  ;  but  if  Mademoiselle  would  confer  upon  the 
school  the  honor  of  a  visit,  an  exception  should  certainly 
be  made  in  her  faVor. 

I  don't  know  why  this  slight  circumstance  has  seemed 
to  me  at  all  worthy  of  record.  Possibly  because  I  am 
such  an  admirer  of  human  loveliness,  and  especially  of 
female  human  loveliness,  that  Madame's  florid  encom- 
iums have  made  me  desirous  to  see  this  little  charmer. 

No  sooner  had  Madame  Langlois  taken  her  departure 
than  Cornelia  Walters  called  for  me  to  go  out  and  walk 
with  her.  We  had  hardly  left  the  house,  it  seemed, 
when  she  was  joined  by  that  insupportable  Summerby, 
her  present  devotee.  I  have  never  been  able  to  under- 
stand how  he  has  managed  to  get  among  decent  people 
at  all ;  but  Cornelia  manifestly  considers  him  adorable. 
To  my  thinking  he  is  stamped  with  the  stamp  of  low 
origin  and  stupidity  and  vulgarity,  though  of  course  his 
face  is  handsome  after  a  certain  bold  red-white-and-black 
type  of  beauty.  I  daresay  Cornelia  has  picked  him  up 
at  some  watering-place  and  is  forcing  society  to  gulp 
him  down,  unpalatable  as  the  dose  is.  I  tried  my  best 
not  to  hear  what  they  were  saying  to  each  other  after 
she  had  made  me  acquainted  with  him,  though  Cornelia 
attempted  more  than  once  to  include  me  in  their  con- 
versation. 

"  I  am  going  to  take  you  and  Mr.  Summerby  as  far  as 
Stewart's,  Helen,"  was  her  final  attempt,  when  we  had 
reached  the  corner  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Fourteenth 
Street,  "  provided,  that  is,  it  will  not  bore  you  too 
much  to  go  there  and  buy  some  gloves  with  me.  I  sent 
for  some  Bertins  a  century  ago  and  they  haven't  come. 
Just  think  of  having  to  give  New  York  prices  !  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  HJ 

To  Stewart's  we  went.  Whilst  Cornelia  was  selecting 
her  gloves  Mr.  Summerby  made  one  or  two  vain  efforts 
to  obtain  nice  treatment  from  me.  Feeling  that  my 
hands  were  tied  in  the  matter  of  snubbing  him  outright, 
I  limited  myself  to  placid  monosyllables,  and  showed 
a  deep  interest  in  the  multitude  of  surrounding  cus- 
tomers. Whilst  thus  occupied  I  chanced  to  let  my  eyes 
rest  upon  a  lady  who  was  standing  just  at  my  elbow, 
engaged  in  purchasing  gloves.  The  color  flew  to 
my  face,  then,  though  I  don't  believe  that  the  maltreated 
Summerby  noticed  it.  I  had  discovered  myself  to  be 
within  a  very  few  inches  of  a  brilliantly  beautiful 
woman,  last  seen  on  the  piazza  of  a  certain  hotel. 

Except  that  a  tiny  tasteful  bonnet  replaced  the  round 
hat  of  yore  and  its  iridescent  feather,  she  was  dressed 
almost  the  same  as  when  we  had  previously  seen  each 
other.  Her  faultless  profile,  with  its  lovely  lines  of 
brow  and  cheek  and  throat,  first  struck  my  recognizing 
gaze,  whilst  she  leaned  above  the  counter  in  a  posture 
of  languorous  reposeful  grace.  I  daresay  that  if  the 
Venus  de  Medici  had  been  made  animate,  and-dressed 
exquisitely,  and  sent  to  buy  herself  gloves  at  Stewart's, 
she  would  have  performed  the  action  with  no  whit  more 
charming  effect. 

I  think  that  I  stared  fixedly  at  her  profile  for  about 
three  seconds  ;  and  then,  as  if  conscious  of  my  scrutiny, 
the  profile  changed  itself  into  a  full  face  and  stared  at 
me  in  return.  Instantly  I  knew  that  she  knew  me. 
Those  great  bluish-gray  golden-lashed  eyes  nearly 
veiled  themselves  in  the  superbest  sort  of  scorn  ;  the 
fresh  rich-red  mouth  wore  a  sudden  sneer ;  the  well- 
poised  little  head  was  thrown  a  trifle  backward. 

I  suppose  that  it  was  the  beauty  of  all  this  contempt 
rather  than  the  contempt  proper,  which  prevented  me 


!l8  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

from  turning  away  immediately  and  letting  it  waste 
itself  on  my  back.  Sheer  admiration,  and  nothing 
except  that,  kept  my  eyes  riveted  upon  the  woman, 
until  Cornelia's  voice  sounded  appealingly  from  an 
opposite  direction. 

"  Helen,  which  shade  of  lavender  would you  get?" 

"Take  care,  Miss  Jeffreys,  how  you  decide  rashly," 
smirked  Summerby,  who  had  noticed  nothing,  and  was 
trying  to  be  funny.  He  was  standing  between  Cornelia 
and  myself.  I  ignored  politeness  to  the  extent  of  a 
quick  push  in  front  of  him.  When,  under  pretence  of 
deciding  the  vital  question  of  the  lavenders,  I  had  got- 
ten my  head  close  beside  Mrs.  Walters'  and  my  lips  at 
excellent  whispering-nearness  to  her  ear, 

"Cornelia,"  I  hurried,  "look  over  my  shoulder  at 
the  woman  buying  gloves  just  on  our  right,  and  tell  me 
whether  you've  ever  seen  her  before."  Then  aloud, 
and  for  the  benefit  of  Summerby,  I  added :  "  Don't  you 
think  the  light  lavender  is  the  nicer  ?  I  fancy  I  like  it 
better." 

By  this  time  Cornelia  had  obeyed  me.  Our  acquaint- 
ance cannot  be  called  ancient,  but  it  is  old  enough  for 
me  to  have  discovered  that  she  very  rarely  suffers  from 
the  feeblest  qualm  of  embarrassment,  just  now  she 
looked  as  if  some  one  had  suddenly  given  her  usual 
pedestal  of  self-possession  a  rather  ugly  sort  of  shake. 

"  Yes,"  she  began  to  stumble ;  "  that  is,  you  know, 
I've  heard  she  wasn't  proper  ;  in  fact,  my  dear,  that  she's 
perfectly  horrible. "  By  this  time  her  cheeks  had  colored 
into  a  match  of  my  own.  "  You  think  the  light  shade 
the  prettier?  So  do  I."  (To  the  clerk.)  "Three  pairs 
of  these,  please,  and  charge  them  to  Mrs.  L.  Walters." 

"  Do  you  know  anything  more  about  her  ?  "  was  my 
persistent  whisper.  "  Her  name,  I  mean,  or — " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


119 


Cornelia's  hand  caught  mine,  then,  and  her  lips  came 
very  close  to  my  ear.  "  Don't,  Helen,  or  we  shall  be 
noticed." 

"  Pshaw  !     Do  you  know  her  name  ?  " 

"No." 

"  Or  anything  about  her  ?  " 

"  Of  course  not."  Her  eyes  searched  my  face  with  a 
short  penetrant  glance,  and  then  fell  counterward.  "  I 
know  nothing — absolutely  nothing — except  that  she's 
awful.  Now  are  you  satisfied  ?  " 

I  wasn't,  but  feigned  to  be  so.  The  object  of  my 
curiosity  stood  with  face  averted  from  my  look,  when  I 
next  stole  one  in  her  direction.  Her  purchases  were 
evidently  not  completed  by  the  time  Cornelia's  package 
was  delivered  and  we  left  the  store. 

"  You  ladies  are  not  going  directly  up  town,  I  hope," 
remarked  Summerby,  with  a  little  bow  and  a  big  smile, 
when  we  were  again  in  open  air.  "  Haven't  you  any 
more  business  in  Broadway,  this  jolly  morning  ?  I  was 
hurrying  down  town  at  the  time  I  had  the  happiness  to 
meet  you.  Am  I  to  lose  your  charming  company  for 
all  the  rest  of  the  way  ?  " 

•These  thrilling  compliments  seemed  for  the  most  part 
addressed  to  myself.  I  answered  them  with  a  few  cool 
words  to  Cornelia :  "  It's  nearly  lunch  time  ;  I  shan't  be 
able  to  go  down  any  farther."  Then  I  drew  away  from 
Mrs.  Walters  and  her  friend,  as  if  to  signify  how  fixed 
my  determination  was.  Cornelia  lingered  for  a  precious 
moment  in  Summerby's  society,  and  at  length  joined 
me,  just  as  he  was  elaborating  a  very  effective  farewell 
bow. 

''You  weren't  very  civil  to  my  friend,  Helen,"  she 
laughed,  with  no  perceptible  ill-humor.  "  Poor  Joe 
doesn't  get  much  polite  treatment,  by  the  bye.  I  won- 


120  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

der  how  people  can  take  dislikes  to  him  ;  but  then  his 
unpopularity  never  alters  my  feelings  a  jot,  you  know." 

"  It's  quite  good  of  one  to  show  such  disinterested 
friendship,"  I  generalized.  "And  so  that  woman  is 
horrible,  Cornelia.  I'm  amazed  to  hear  it.  .Besides 
being  lovely  to  look  at,  she's  such  perfect  style." 

My  fellow-pedestrian  bit  her  underlip  unmistakably. 
Apart  from  this  sign  of  perplexity  I  could  observe  no 
other,  now.  "Yes.  Oh,  she's  a  superb  creature.  I 
don't  know  anything  more  about  her  than  what  I've 
told  you.  In  fact  I  can't  even  remember  how  I  first 
learned  about  her  at  all.  It  was  quite  long  ago  that  I 
heard  somebody  speak  of  it." 

"  Has  she  been  in  New  York  a  long  time?"  '  I  was 
narrowly  watching  Cornelia's  face.  Am  I  mistaken,  or 
did  the  pink  deepen  on  her  cheeks  to  something  appre- 
ciably warmer  ? 

"Years,  my  dear — years." 

We  walked  along  for  nearly  a  block,  with  silence  oa 
my  side,  and  a  somewhat  unusual  volubility  on  my 
companion's. 

"  Could  you  find  out  her  name  for  me,  Cornelia?  "  I 
presently  struck  in.  "  The  name  of  that  beautiful  creat- 
ure, I  mean,  whom  we  met  at  Stewart's.  I'm  somehow 
curious  to  learn  it ;  and  you,  being  married,  have  op- 
portunities— " 

"  Of  talking  to  men  on  such  a  low  subject,  I  sup- 
pose!" The  interruption  was  made  with  an  almost 
fierce  harshness,  entirely  uncharacteristic.  "No,  I 
thank  you,  Helen  Jeffreys.  You  must  find  some  other 
panderer  to  your  (excuse  me)  immodest  curiosity.  I 
can't  conceive  what  is  your  motive  in  seeking  to  know 
any  more  than  you  know  already." 

This  unexpected  snarl  took  me  so  unawares  that  I 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  I2I 

forgot  to  feel  angry  at  it,  and  indeed  commenced  a 
stammering  apology.  "  Pray  don't  be  offended,  Cor- 
nelia. My  request  was  rather  queer,  I  admit ;  but  I 
had  no  intention  of  wounding  you  with  it." 

"Of  course  not,  Helen."  All  anger  had  vanished 
from  her  face  and  voice.  "I  spoke  altogether  too 
hastily,  and  you  must  let  me  ask  pardon  instead  of 
asking  it  yourself.  And  now  suppose  we  consign  the 
whole  subject  among  the  unmentionables.  Here  conies 
Effie  Williams  ;  how  that  girl's  beauty  is  galloping  away 
from  her  !  " 

We  went  home  to  lunch,  and  a  little  while  after  lunch 
Cornelia  departed.  This  afternoon  I  got  into  one  of 
my  reflective  moods.  There  is  no  denying  that  Mrs. 
Walters'  whole  behavior,  as  far  as  regards  the  meeting, 
with  that  woman  in  Stewart's,  flavors  puzzlingly  of  the 
mysterious.  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  Cor- 
nelia, the  antipodes  of  a  prude  in  everything  else, 
should  have  shown  prominent  prudery  concerning  this 
one  affair.  And  I  find  it  very  hard  to  believe  that  she 
was  ignorant  of  a  certain  name.  Yet  if  in  reality  not 
ignorant,  why  should  she  have  attempted  any  conceal- 
ment? " 

I  thought  and  thought  and  thought  about  these  mat- 
ters this  afternoon,  till  I  found  myself  on  the  limiting- 
line  between  good  health  and  a  nervous  headache. 
And  now,  Diary,  my  pencil  has  been  disfiguring  the 
margin  of  your  page  with  several  shamefully-drawn 
inhuman  profiles,  just  because  the  scripture  of  the  above 
paragraph  set  me  thinking  and  thinking  and  thinking 
once  more. 

Am    I    nothing    but   a   suspicious  whimsical   fancy- 
ridden  goose  ?     Was  there  no  acting  in  what  Cornelia 
Walters  did  and  said  this  morning  ? 
6 


122  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Ah,  what  a  devilish  acrid  loathsome  poison  suspi- 
cion is !  How  it  can  spread,  with  lightninglike  fleetness 
of  defilement,  through  the  life  of  any  earnest  faith,  clog- 
ging and  palsying  its  brave  strong  heart-beats  !  Thank 
God  that  I  warn  myself  in  time  against  too  deep  a 
draught  of  it,  and  can  dash  the  danger  from  my  lips  ! 

I  am  no  fool,  to  let  phantoms  of  my  own  summoning 
crowd  in  upon  me.  From  to-night  henceforward  I 
shall  make  decisive  end  of  all  such  purposeless  self- 
torment.  Somewhere  in  those  manifold  poetical  wan- 
derings of  which  my  girlhood  was  so  fond,  I  have  met 
these  lines.  They  did  not  seem  more  than  a  cluster  of 
wayside  wildflowers  then,  but  I  find  that  memory,  like 
a  faithful  handmaid  following  behind  her  mistress,  has 
gathered  them  and  kept  them  till  now  : 

"  Better  confide  and  be  deceived 

A  thousand  times  by  treacherous  foes, 
Than  once  accuse  the  innocent, 
Or  let  suspicion  mar  repose." 

Fuller  dined  with  us  this  evening.  He  seemed  in 
very  pleasant  spirits  and  staid  until  after  eleven.  By 
the  bye,  I  suppose  some  people  would  say  that  I  ought 
to  cloister  myself,  after  to-morrow,  or  else  only  take  my 
airings  inside  carriage-walls  ;  for  to-morrow  mamma  is 
to  inform  her  friends,  through  the  medium  of  numerous 
engraved  messages,  that  "  the  honor  of  their  company 
is  requested  at  the  marriage-ceremony  of  her  daughter, 
Miss  Helen  Jeffreys,  and  Mr.  Fuller  Dobell." 

Dear  me  !  I  dread  all  the  fuss  and  parade,  and  wish 
it  was  well  over  and  done  with. 


CHAPTER  XL 

]CT.  22. — l(  You  haven't  told  me  anything  about 
whom  I  am  to  have  for  wedding-guests, 
mamma,"  I  gently  asserted  at  breakfast  this 
morning.  "  Did  you  forget,  or  were  you  afraid  that  I 
should  put  forward  any  troublesome  opinions  on  the 
subject?" 

Mamma,  who  has  been  the  soul  of  suavity  and  graci- 
ousness  for  days  past,  laughed  melodiously  whilst  she 
stirred  her  coffee.  "  I  fancied  you  rather  indifferent  as 
to  who  came,  Helen."  Then  to  Henry,  standing  be- 
hind her:  "Find  Marie  and  tell  her  to  give  you  my 
writing-case." 

The  writing-case  was  presently  brought,  and  pres- 
ently I  was  in  possession  of  mamma's  visiting-book. 

"  You  will  find  a  tiny  pencilled  cross  over  against  the 
names  of  those  whom  I  didn't  ask,"  she  explained. 

I  ran  my  eye  along  the  names,  taking  care  to  slight 
none  of  them.  Having  finished  my  inspection,  I  handed 
the  book  in  silence  to  Henry,  who  handed  it  to  mamma, 
who  restored  it  to  her  writing-case. 

Henry  is  the  very  Chesterfield  of  butlers.  I  have  no 
fixed  belief  as  to  whether  he  listens  at  key-holes  or  not ; 
but  the  possible  possession  of  any  such  unfortunate 
habit  surely  does  not  interfere  with  his  rapid  percep- 


124  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

tion  of  when  his  presence  ceases  to  be  desired.  Whilst 
mamma  was  replacing  her  list  in  the  writing-case,  he 
glided  soundlessly  from  the  breakfast-room. 

I  at  once  broke  silence.  "  You  have  asked  the  three 
Delano  girls,  I  see,  but  not  Melville." 

"  No  ;  not  Melville.  Fuller  and  he  are  on  such  un- 
pleasant terms,  you  know." 

"  But  he  has  been  an  intimate  friend  of  mine, 
mamma."  I  made  my  voice  calmly  firm.  "  I  prefer 
that  he  should  receive  cards." 

Mamma  broke  a  piece  of  crisp  toast  very  deliberately 
before  answering  me.  "  Have  you  consulted  with  Ful- 
ler, Helen,  on  the  subject  of  inviting  him  ?  " 

"  No  ;  but  I  shall  do  so  at  once." 

And  I  kept  my  word.  Fuller  dropped  in  at  about 
eight  o'clock  that  evening.  "You  once  said  that  you 
didn't  want  me  ever  to  speak  with  you  about  Melville 
Delano,"  I  boldly  plunged,  immediately  after  kissing 
him. 

His  face  darkened  on  the  instant.  "  Yes,  Helen  ;  I 
said  it." 

"  Very  well.  Prepare  to  be  annoyed,  please.  I 
want  him  asked  to  the  wedding,  and  mamma  objects. 
She  thinks  that  you  should  be  consulted  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  I  agree  with  her  perfectly.  So  now  I  request 
of  you  that  you  will  not  decide  against  his  having 
cards." 

Fuller's  hand  went  moustacheward.  "  We  are  not 
on  speaking  terms  any  longer." 

"  Nothing  has  taken  place  between  you  since —  ?  " 

He  cut  me  short  with  a  quick  frown  and  the  sharp 
word  :  "  Nothing." 

"  Not  on  speaking  terms,"  I  repeated,  in  a  perplexed 
way.  "  That  makes  the  matter  difficult ;  although  he 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  I2$ 

would  be  almost  sure  not  to  come — at  least  not  to  the 
reception,  you  know."  Then  an  idea  struck  me,  and  I 
went  on,  after  a  second  of  silence  :  "  Will  you  allow  me 
to  send  him  the  cards,  Fuller,  and  a  little  private  note 
besides  ? — a  note  merely  showing  that  I  understand  how 
uncomfortably  he  and  I  are  both  situated  as  regards  the 
affair  ?  " 

Before  the  last  word  of  this  sentence  had  left  my  lips, 
I  somehow  had  become  confident  that  Fuller  would 
fling  forth  an  answer  to  it  of  the  ugliest  and  most  ill- 
humored  sort  imaginable.  But  he  amazed  me — I  must 
add  that  he  also  piqued  me — by  nothing  more  savage 
than  a  very  acquiescent  nod  of  the  head.  ' '  Do  so  if  you 
choose,  Helen,"  was  the  audible  form  presently  taken 
by  this  access  of  sweet-temper.  "  I  don't  want  to  seem 
disagreeable.  Manage  matters  precisely  as  you  think 
proper  ;  only,  manage  them  so  that  your  friend  and  I 
are  not  placed  in  a  position  that  would  necessitate  our 
shaking  hands  with  each  other  ;  for  in  that  case  I  should 
feel  quite  dissatisfied  with  the  whole  undertaking." 

My  answer  was  something  very  amiable :  I  was  re- 
solved that  he  should  not  dream  of  how  mortified  his 
ready  consent  had  made  me.  Esteem  such  mortifica- 
tion, if  you  will,  Diary,  the  summit  of  frivolity  and 
womanishness ;  but  I  can't  help  feeling  that  since  cir- 
cumstances had  put  forward  their  imperative  demand 
for  a  little  decent  jealousy  on  Fuller's  part,  his  complete 
failure  to  meet  so  natural  a  liability  was  altogether  try- 
ing. I  must  admit  that  it  pricks  me  keenly  to  know  his 
dislike  of  Melville  based  on  personal  reasons  alone. 
Not  that  if  Fuller  were  anything  of  an  absolute  Othello 
I  shouldn't  make  the  most  insubordinate  Desdemona 
realizable  ;  but  then  his  placid  willingness  to  have  me 
sit  down  and  write  a  note  like  that  which  I  proposed 


126  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

writing,  to  the  man  who  has  assuredly  paid  me  all  sorts 
of  serious  attentions  for  months  before  my  engagement, 
is  very  much  at  variance  with  the  mode  of  behavior 
commonly  recognized  among  lovers. 

And  yet,  pshaw  !  I  thought  I  was  a  logical  cant-hater. 
How  should  it  concern  me,  this  "  mode  of  behavior," 
to  quote  my  own  nonsense  ?  Other  people  are  other 
people,  and  we  are  we.  What  did  I  write  about  sus- 
picion only  a  page  or  two  back  ?  and  here  I  find  myself 
blaming'  Fuller  for  not  being  marred  by  it.  Perhaps  if 
he  had  set  a  harsh  veto  upon  my  communicating  at  all 
with  Melville,  I  should  now  be  lamentational  on  the 
subject  of  his  undeserved  injustice.  Because  he  trusts 
me  with  a  beautiful  sincerity  of  trust,  shall  I  not  there- 
fore believe  myself  blessed  beyond  the  lot  of  most  living 
women  ? 

This  putting  of  one's  feelings  down  upon  paper  is 
truly  like  holding  a  mirror  up  to  one's  faults,  I  find. 
You  are  somehow  the  broom,  Diary,  with  which  I  sweep 
away  many  mental  cobwebs.  Transcribe  your  follies  in 
black  and  white,  and  you  have,  in  nine  cases  out  often, 
(provided  the  record  be  a  faithful  one)  written  with  the 
act  a  recipe  for  their  cure. 

To-night,  as  soon  as  Fuller  had  gone,  I  went  up- 
stairs into  mamma's  room  and  found  her  just  returned 
from  a  dinner  at  somebody's,  (I  have  lately  grown  so 
indifferent  to  these  matters  as  not  to  know  precisely 
where)  with  Marie  on  the  point  of  unsheathing  her  from 
a  violet  satin  dress,  whose  lovely  lustres  glimmered  mel- 
lowly in  the  shaded  gas-light. 

"  We  have  decided  to  ask  Melville  Delano,"  I  began, 
with  a  touch  of  triumph  in  my  voice.  "  Fuller  offers 
no  objections.  If  you've  a  set  of  cards  and  a  blank  en- 
velope I  will  address  them  to-night." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


127 


Mamma  showed  not  a  vestige  of  astonishment.  "  I 
will  get  them  presently,  Helen.'-'  Then  in  French  to 
Marie  :  "  You  may  bring  me  a  dressihg-sacque,  and  go 
away  until  I  ring." 

Whilst  Marie  was  leaving  the  room  mamma  handed 
me  the  blank  envelope  containing  the  cards.  "  Was  it 
necessary  to  persuade  Fuller  very  much  ?  "  she  ques- 
tioned, as  I  took  them. 

"  Oh,  no.     He  consented  easily  enough." 

Mamma  seated  herself  in  a  great  tufted  chair,  closed 
her  eyes  wearily  for  a  second,  and  screened  with  one 
white  hand  an  undeniable  gape,  resultant,  doubtless, 
from  the  fatigues  of  her  recent  dinner.  "  Fuller  is  so 
kind  and  yielding.  It  was  charming  of  him  not  to  re- 
fuse you." 

I  laughed,  a  trifle  discordantly.  "  Does  he  deserve 
such  very  copious  praise,  mamma?"  Then,  just  as 
some  words  had  reached  the  verge  of  my  lips  concern- 
ing a  certain  note  which  was  to  accompany  the  cards, 
I  changed  my  mind  and  kept  silent. 

"  He  is  acting  generously, "pronounced  my  parent,  with 
at  least  a  suspicion  of  starch  in  her  manner,  "and  for 
that  reason  he  deserves  your  praise.  Isn't  it  rather 
early,  by  the  bye,  for  you  to  begin  depreciating  him  ?  " 

Whereupon  I  made  expeditious  answer  :  "  Neither 
now  nor  at  any  future  time,  mamma,  have  I  any  wish  to 
depreciate  Fuller  ;  pray  be  certain  of  that.  But  I  fail 
to  perceive  why  he  merits  much  patting  on  the  back  in 
the  present  instance.  We  should  remember  how  this 
quarrel  with  Melville  Delano  originated  ;  for  I  suppose 
you  have  heard.  I  myself  happened  to  be  an  eye-wit- 
ness of  the  whole  proceeding.  Melville's  behavior  was 
just  irreproachable  ;  no  gentleman  should  have  done  less 
or  more  under  like  circumstances." 


I28  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN, 

After  that  I  moved  doorward,  having  slight  wish  to 
take  part  in  any  dialogue,  whether  bellicose  or  friendly, 
at  so  late  an  hour.  But  just  then  a  sharp  cold  laugh 
from  mamma  detained  me.  She  does  not  employ  that 
laugh  often  ;  I  do  not  think  she  would  greatly  relish  the 
hearing  of  it  by  many  pairs  of  ears  except  mine.  In- 
variably she  accompanies  it  with  some  words  that  well 
match  its  jeering  icy  pitilessness.  I  stood  waiting  for 
such  words,  and  presently  heard  them  : 

"  My  dear  child,  it  is  high  time  you  had  gotten  a 
grain  or  so  more  of  worldly  wisdom.  Accept  things  as 
they  are,  and  make  the  best  of  them — not  as  they  should 
be,  striving  to  make  them  conform  with  your  fine  stand- 
ard. The  right  or  the  wrong  in  Melville  Delano's  be- 
havior concerns  you  not  at  all.  Fancy  what  social  sixes 
and  seven's  would  exist  among  humanity  if  some  new  law 
should  suddenly  make  itself  felt,  by  means  of  which  every- 
body was  rewarded  or  punished  precisely  according  to  his 
deserts.  You  and  I  have  given  Fuller  all  conceivable 
signs  of  pardon  for  what,  when  we  first  reflected  on  it, 
seemed  a  very  grave  sort  of  indiscretion.  But  in  so 
pardoning  him  we  are  of  necessity  forced  to  stand  as  his 
defenders.  Anything  on  our  part  in  the  least  resembling 
sympathy  with  Melville  flavors  keenly  of  the  ludicrous, 
now.  His  valiant  championship  at  that  country  hotel, 
this  autumn,  should  number  itself  among  such  good 
deeds  as  too  often  encounter  the  melancholy  fate  of 
being  interred  with  their  performers'  bones.  All  which 
it  remains  our  duty  to  remember  is  that  he  has  quarrelled 
with  Fuller,  and  that  Fuller's  quarrel  should  be  our  own. 
I  confess  that  the  plan  of  sending  him  your  wedding- 
cards  (though  of  course,  by  the  bye,  he  will  have  the 
g6od  taste  to  stay  away  from  the  wedding)  strikes  me 
as  most  advisable  :  no  doubt  Fuller,  who  is  a  man  of 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


129 


the  world,  saw  the  matter  in  this  politic  light.  It  dis- 
arms, or  ought  to  disarm,  Melville  Delano,  were  he  at 
all  inclined  toward  the  employment  of  any  awkward 
gossip  :  for  this  reason,  Helen,  I  must  express  myself 
glad  that  you  have  carried  your  point." 

By  the  time  that  mamma  had  finished,  a  sick  bitter 
dejected  feeling  had  crept  about  my  heart ;  just  as  if 
with  every  breath  of  my  nostrils  I  was  breathing  in  a 
dreary  doubt  lest  human  life,  looked  upon  as  a  kind  of 
divine  experiment,  had  proven  a  most  monstrous  and 
miserable  failure.  It  is  not  the  first  time  that  one  of 
these  bloodlessly  frigid  harangues  on  mamma's  part  has 

affected  me  in  much  the  same  manner  as  now.     For 

« 

just  a  little  moment,  at  such  times  as  these,  all  that 
wholesome  "  hate  of  hate  "  and  "  love  of  love  "  which 
make  up  the.thew  and  sinew  of  anything  like  a  com- 
plete joy  in  living,  will  seem  to  crumble  away  with 
quick  silent  ruin.  I  remember  that  there  have  been 
men  with  wiser  heads  and  larger  hearts  than  mine,  who 
have  died  denouncing  their  fellow-creatures  as  three 
parts  wickedness  to  one  of  good.  And  at  such  times, 
too,  all  the  bad  people  whom  I  have  ever  known  (not 
by  any  means  a  meagre  company)  seem  pushing  them- 
selves into  my  recollection  at  the  expense  of  their  su- 
periors. ' '  fs  mamma  right  ?  "  comes  the  desolate  ques- 
tion. Is  it  not  better,  after  all,  to  look  upon  humanity 
with  her  merciless  and  cynical  eye?  Are  heart  and 
faith  and  feeling  indeed  perilous  guides  ?  Do  they  who 
make  self  their  one  dominant  king  and  believe  that  self 
sways  likewise  the  world  with  which  they  deal,  gain  in 
the  end  more  by  their  callous  creed  than  the  most  fervid- 
souled  optimists  who  have  ever  spent  years  in  humane 
services  ?  And  since  we  can  never  see  with  these  mor- 
tal eyes,  hear  with  these  earthly  ears,  any  surety  of 


130  '  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

evidence  that  death  does  not  alike  end  fair  deeds  and 
foul  in  one  impartial  silence  and  sleep  and  nothingness, 
is  it  not  wiser  so  to  live  that  if  life  be  in  truth  a  mere 
transient  mockery  of  perishable  brain  and  blood  and 
nerve,  we  shall  have  reaped  from  such  a  wretched  evan- 
escence whatever  of  gross  personal  profit  may  be  found 
there  ? — revelling  recklessly  for  one  little  night,  before 
the  livid  flare  of  dawn  shall  dim  the  palace-lamps  and 
we  hurry  to  join,  at  the  chilly  portal,  that  graveward 
march  of  tired-out  masquers  wherein,  as  Theophile 
Gautier  has  pictured  it  so  weirdly,  so  fearfully,  so  beau- 
tifully— 

"  A  chaqrie  pas  grossit  la  bande  ; 
Le  jeune  au  vieux  donne  la  main  ; 
L1  irresistible  sarabands 
Met  en  branle  le  genre  humain" 

This  attempt  to  paint  my  mood  of  mind  at  certain 
hours  (my  mood  of  mind  to-night  until  I  had  fought 
against  and  overcome  it)  makes  me  marvel  that  a  life- 
long association  with  mamma  should  not  have  produced 
in  several  ways  more  permanent  results.  But  no  ;  she 
has  not  quite  stamped  me  with  her  stamp,  as  yet, 
though  perhaps  if  I  had  been  made  of  less  impression- 
able stuff,  I  should  always  have  heard  unconcernedly 
her  world-wise  counsels. 

Thank  Heaven  !  I  am  going  to  bed  after  all,  though, 
with  a  light  heart.  I  think  it  must  have  been  the  recol- 
lection of  Fuller's  good-night  kiss  that  has  banished  my 
dismal  humor.  It  was  a  trinity  of  kisses,  by  the  bye — 
three  in  one,  and  all  such  enormities  !  the  first  loitering 
into  the  second,  and  the  second  chirruping  (I  blush  to 
record)  into  the  third.  Ah,  Fuller,  your  love  is  in  truth 
my  amulet  of  safety  !  It  is  a  sweet  fact  that  when  the 
dragons  of  dejection,  of  weariness — ay,  even  of  indiges- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  -  j^I 

tion,  reach  out  toward  me  their  hideous  paws,  this  is  the 
charm  which  gives  me  speedy  refuge  ! 

Immediately  after  leaving  mamma  to-night  I  came  up 
here  to  my  own  room  and  wrote  Melville  the  following 
note  : 

MY  DEAR  MR.  DELANO  : — Please  believe  that  in  sending  you  the 
enclosed  cards  I  am  showing  a  mindfulness  of  our  past  friendship,  and  do 
not  merely  intend  them  as  a  piece  of  hollow  courtesy  ;  although  I  feel  sure 
— am  indeed  forced  to  hope — that  when  you  have  remembered  a  certain 
most  unpleasant  matter  you  will  perceive,  and  perceive  with  a  regret  no 
keener  than  mine,  the  one  negative  course  which  it  is  so  much  better  for 
you  to  take.  If  these  words  seem  cruel,  pray  believe  that  they  are  meant 
only  as  kind.  Not  patronizingly  kind,  recollect,  but  kind  with  the  friendli- 
est fairest  motive. 

Is  this  whole  note  a  blunder,  by  the  bye?  Since  I  could  not  send  the 
.  cards  without  it,  ought  I  to  have  sent  neither  ?  Perhaps.  Judge  me,  if 
you  please ;  only,  I  point  to  your  knowledge  of  what  I  am,  and  in  the 
name  of  that  knowledge  demand  that  you  shall  reflect  well  before  you  mis- 
judge  me. 

Just  a  word  more :  I  am  going  to  be  stared  at  in  church,  a  week  from 
next  Thursday,  by  hundreds  of  pairs  of  eyes  that  will  regard  me  simply  in 
the  light  of  so  much  white  satin,  so  much  point-lace,  so  much  nice  jewelry. 
Your  eyes,  if  you  choose  to  mingle  them  with  this  ocular  multitude,  must 
of  necessity  scrutinize  me  from  a  less  mercenary  standpoint :  and  therefore 
it  would  please  me  to  fancy  that  you  were  present,  even  if  I  have  no  cer- 
tainty to  this  effect. 

Very  truly  yours, 

HELEN  JEFFREYS. 

FIFTH  AVENUE,  22^  Oct. 

MR.  DELANO. 

This  shall  be  sent  to  his  club  to-morrow  morning. 
He  will  probably  turn  green  with  rage  at  first,  but 
afterwards,  on  a  second  or  a  third  reading,  begin  to  wear 
a  healthier  complexion  and  look  at  the  note  with  more 
rational  eyes.  Anyhow,  it  is  wiser  to  select  the  pleas- 
antest  probability  regarding  his  behavior. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

|CT.  26. — All  my  bridemaids  elect  lunched  with 
me  to-day.  It  is  certainly  a  very  pretty  assem- 
blage of  girls.  There  doesn't  seem  to  be  any 
striking  dissimilarity  of  traits  between  its  individual- 
members.  One  might  almost  say  of  the  group  that 
they  are  four  souls  with  but  a  single  thought,  four 
hearts  that  beat  as  one.  I  somehow  feel  all  the  time 
that  I  am  presiding  over  this  fair  congress,  wherein  the 
flattering  position  of  chairwoman  has  been  with  mute 
courtesy  offered  to  me,  that  one  or  two  downright  un- 
conventional inharmonious  spirits  would  give  a  very 
pleasant  break  to  the  monotony.  As  it  is,  they  all 
think  alike  and  talk  alike,  and  (in  a  general  sense)  dress 
alike.  What  elicits  a  "Dear  me!"  or  a  "Gracious 
goodness  ! "  from  number  one  is  infallibly  certain  to 
elicit  corresponding  comment  from  number  four.  That 
is  a  very  worn-out  simile,  I  am  well  aware,  which  likens 
the  demands  of  fashion  and  folly  and  vanity  to  the  bed 
of  Procrustes  ;  but  I  couldn't  help  thinking  to-day,  as  I 
surveyed  this  dainty  sisterhood  who  had  come  to  imperil 
their  digestions  in  my  society  with  chicken-salad  and 
chocolate  and  French  cakes,  how  each  of  them  in  sweet 
self-abandonment  had  tripped  prettily  up  to  the  Pro- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LTNEN. 


133 


crustean  bed,  resolved  to  bear  like  lovely  heroines  what- 
ever excruciating  piece  of  surgery  its  limited  accommo- 
dations might  require  of  the  occupant ;  and  how,  vic- 
tim by  victim,  each  had  borne  with  unmurmuring  lips 
the  inexorable  lopping-off  which  followed. 

Here  is  a  sample  of  the  conversation  at  this  morning's 
luncheon  :  florid  phraseology  is  in  vogue  nowadays, 
and  it  is  the  proper  thing  to  pile  Pelion  upon  Ossa, 
Diary,  whenever  one  opens  one's  lips.  Among  the 
maidenhood  of  our  Best  Society  (my  capital  b  and  my 
capital  s  are  both  intentional),  not  to  make  every  sen- 
tence a  farrago  of  superlatives  is  recklessly  to  court  the 
charge  of  being  called  slow  and  poky  : 

Belle  'Dillinger  :  "  Girls,  who  do  you  think  had  the 
astounding  brass  to  dare  join  me  in  the  street  this  morn- 
ing ?  You  might  guess  till  you  were  all  black  in  the 
faces,  and  then  never  form  the  remotest  conception." 

(Universal  perplexity,  everybody  turning  a  puzzled 
face  to  everybody's  neighbor.) 

Margie  Cartwright  (breaking  the  deep  silence)  : 
"  Come,  Belle,  we're  mad  to  hear.  Who  was  it  ?  " 

Belle  :  "  That  loathsome  wretch,  Johnny  Bigsbee." 

Omnes:  "Ugh!" 

Susie  Montgomery :  '"  Thank  Heaven,  I've  never 
had  the  fearful  fate  of  knowing  him.  They  say  he  actu- 
ally drivels  at  the  mouth  when  he  talks  to  you." 

Omnes  (with  uplifted  hands  and  a  nauseated  grimace) : 
"Oh,  Susie!"  * 

Kate  Effingham :  "  He  was  really  engaged  to  a  girl 
out  West ;  Mrs.  Fullerton  knows  it  to  be  a  fact.  She. 
died  very  soon  after  the  engagement,  which,  of  course, 
was  only  to  be  expected.  I  can't  conceive  how  she 
ever  let  him  kiss  her.  I  should  so  much  rather  be  flayed 
alive.  Wouldn't  you  ?  " 


134  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

(Universal  preference  to  being  flayed  alive  promptly 
manifested.) 

And  so  on,  interminably.  Mamma,  who  had  been 
lunching  away  from  home,  returned  at  about  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  and  found  me  prone  to  say  rather 
satirical  things  concerning  my  just-departed  guests. 

11  Don't  be  morose,  Helen,"  she  at  length  sharply  re- 
proved. "I  have  recently  observed  with  regret  that 
you  are  showing  a  very  crabbed  distaste  for  society. 
You  should  overcome  the  foolish  feeling  at  once ;  it  is 
very  unsuitable  to  the  future  wife  of  Fuller  Dobell." 

Mamma  seems  to  think  so  ;  but  I  fervently  hope  that 
she  is  wrong. 

.  Oct.  31. — The  night  before  my  wedding-day  !  Fuller 
has  departed  very  early  and  I  have  been  sent  upstairs 
very  early  also,  the  coming  fatigues  of  to-morrow  re- 
quiring that  I  should  take  deep  draughts  of  preparatory 
slumber.  However,  I  am  in  this  case  like  the  proverb- 
ial horse,  which  can  be  driven  to  water,  but  must 
afterwards  become  a  free  agent  as  far  as  regards  his 
drinking  or  his  not  drinking. 

Sleep  !  I  wonder  if  any  brides  ever  do  sleep  much  on 
their  ante-nuptial  night. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

]OV.  I.— No  doubt  Mrs.  Fuller  Dobell  ought  to 
feel  entirely  fagged  out  after  the  wearying 
events  of  her  wedding-day ;  but  somehow  she 
doesn't  feel  anything  of  the  sort.  Just  at  present  she  is 
seated  before  a  gratifying  little  fire,  armed  with  her 
diary  and  her  pencil,  and  clad  in  a  commodious  wrapper 
which  is  indeed  a  comfort  to  the  flesh  after  her  smart 
tight-fitting  travelling-dress,  worn  all  the  way  from  New 
York  to  Philadelphia. 

Fuller  has  engaged  charming  apartments  for  us  here 
in  the  Continental  Hotel.  The  chamber  in  which  I  am 
now  seated  wouldn't  precisely  shock  a  princess  even  if 
it  did  not  thoroughly  please  her ;  and  on  the  other  side 
of  yonder  closed  door  is  the  attractive  little  parlor  where 
we  have  recently  had  our  dinner  served  to  us.  There  I 
left  Fuller,  with  destructive  intentions  toward  a  cigar, 
some  moments  ago.  Whilst  amputating  its  end  he  said 
something  about  my  probable  exhaustion  and  need  of 
rest ;  so  I  took  the  selfish  hint  and  left  him  alone.  He 
supposes  that  I  am  not  beginning  anything  half  so 
wakeful,  Diary,  as  a  chat  with  you.  Doubtless  it  would 
rather  worry  him  to  know  of  my  occupation  ;  but  then 
that  cigar  was  long,  and  experience  has  taught  me  that 
he  isn't  a  fast  smoker.  So  there  is  no  danger  of  his  dis- 


136  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

covering  me  just  at  present,  and  I  shall  have  ample 
leisure  to  follow  his  suggestion  before  the  clutch  of  Vice 
(smoking  is  a  vice)  has  had  the  kindness  to  release  him. 

There  have  been  various  accounts  given,  during  the 
past  few  hundred  years  or  so,  of  how  it  fcels  to  get 
married.  Speaking  strictly  on  my  own  responsibility, 
I  affirm  that  it  is  a  very  disagreeable  feeling  indeed.  I 
am  morally  certain  that  if,  whilst  I  was  being  conducted 
altarward  through  that  thronged  church  this  morning, 
anybody  had  shown  any  portion  of  my  person  the  fullest 
stabbing-qualities  of  which  the  largest-sized  pin  is 
capable,  I  should  have  been  thoroughly  ignorant  of  such 
a  demonstration.  I  was  in  a  kind  of  torpor  from  my 
scalp  to  the  soles  of  my  feet,  though  a  torpor  which 
permitted  me  to  move  tolerably  well  and  to  give  my 
responses  with  creditable  clearness.  People  said  after- 
wards that  I  made  a  very  successful  bride.  Their 
complimentary  comments  would  perhaps  have  been 
much  the  same,  however,  if  Mr.  Dobell's  betrothed  had 
had  a  mild  touch  of  hysterics  at  the  altar  or  had  gurgled 
incoherently  when  it  became  proper  to  say  "  I  will." 

Walking  down  the  aisle  again,  arm  in  arm  with  Fuller, 
and  feeling  myself  possessed  for  the  first  time  of  that 
strong  strange  and  sweet  right  so  to  walk  with  him — 
well,  this  was  rather  an  improvement  upon  previous 
sensations,  it  must  be  admitted.  It  was  indeed  very 
.much  as  though,  after  writhing  in  the  dentist-chair,  with 
hair  all  tumbled  and  face  flushed  hotly,  I  had  been 
allowed  to  take  up  my  bonnet  and  walk,  cheered  by  the 
professional  information  that  my  mouth  was  now  in  ex- 
cellent order,  and  not  at  all  cast  down  by  the  profes- 
sional advice  regarding  a  call  once  a  month  or  so  in  the 
future.  I  was  still  being  stared  at,  it  is  true,  by  the 
hundreds  of  sharp  searching  eyes ;  but  every  moment 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  i$j 

brought  me  farther  away  from  that  keen  scrutiny  and 
nearer  the  merciful  carriage  which  waited  outside, 
ready  to  roll  me  comfortably  home  between  drawn  win- 
dow-shades. 

The  reception  promptly  followed  our  return.  I  shook 
hands,  and  Fuller  shook  hands,  with  every  member  of 
a  prodigious  throng  who  approached  us  for  that  amiable 
purpose.  I  also  smiled,  and  Fuller  also  smiled,  with 
the  conventional  prodigality.  A  good  many  people 
held  long  conversations  with  me,  of  the  devotional 
ultra-affable  order  ;  I  have  forgotten  nearly  everything 
which  everybody  said,  except  the  kind  speeches  of  a 
few  whom  I  believe  to  have  spoken  with  unaffected 
sincerity.  John  Driscoll  was  among  this  honored 
minority.  He  held  my  hand  and  looked  me  straight  in 
the  eyes,  whilst  he  was  telling  me  how  strong  were  his 
wishes  for  my  future  happiness. 

"  But  you  appear  as  solemn  as  an  owl  whilst  you  are 
saying  these  pleasant  things,"  I  objected. 

"  Do  I  ?  "  he  returned,  with  a  fractional  smile.  "  It 
is  because  I  am  so  much  in  earnest,  Mrs.  Dobell." 
And  then  somebody  displaced  him.  I  believe,  by  the 
bye,  that  he  was  forced  to  abdicate  in  favour  of  one  of 
Melville's  sisters ;  the  youngest,  a  tall  pale  girl,  not 
without  a  certain  sluggish  tallow-colored  beauty.  She 
congratulated  me  copiously ;  I  felt  sure,  some  time  be- 
fore the  end  of  her  pretty  speech,  that  Melville  had  not 
made  whatever  feelings  my  note  might  have  produced 
in  him,  a  matter  of  family  confidence.  He  was  not 
present,  I  am  glad  to  relate,  at  the  reception. 

My  ultimate  release  from  the  drawing-room  was  very 
refreshing.  Blanche  and  Marie  combined  their  powers 
of  handmaidship  in  the  matter  of  my  second  toilette, 
and  disenthralled  me  from  all  bridal  braveries  with  mar- 


133 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


vellous  speed,  either  babbling  in  my  .ears,  as  she  did  so, 
melodious  French  accounts  of  what  Mrs.  That,  Mrs. 
This,  and  Miss  The  Other  had  been  overheard  to  say 
about  my  costume,  my  superb  array  of  presents,  and 
everything  which  concerned  the  nuptials.  Such  a  pearl 
necklace  as  that  which  Mr.  Dobell  had  given  his  bride, 
was  never  seen  before ;  as  for  Mrs.  Jeffrey's  gift  of 
silver,  and  Mrs.  Walters'  emerald  set,  and  the  countless 
costly  tributes  of  affection,  not  to  say  policy,  which  the 
Messrs.  Tiffany  and  others  had  assisted  an  amiable  cir- 
cle of  friends  in  offering  me,  these  were  all  pronounced 
nothing  less  than  magnificent. 

I  wonder  if  Blanche  and  Marie  didn't  understand 
perfectly  what  buncombe  they  were  guilty  of  when  they 
chattered  so  volubly  about  Madame  Dobell's  many 
dear  friends.  They  are  themselves  a  pair  of  shrewd- 
brained  worldlings,  it  is  fair  to  suppose,  and  for  this 
reason  able  to  scent  hypocrisy  in  others.  Possibly  they 
were  well  aware  that  nine-tenths  of  the  expenditure 
involved  in  my  very  beautiful  assortment  of  gifts  had 
been  money  told  out  with  coldest  and  cunningest 
motives.  Possibly  they  could  translate,  with  a  skill 
quite  equal  to  my  own,  the  luxurious  language  of  a 
certain  table  groaning  under  its  rich  burden  :  how  Mrs. 
A.  had  here  sweetly  testified,  in  this  shining  salver, 
that  she  wanted  our  acquaintance  to  take  the  profitable 
shape  of  an  intimacy  ;  how  Mrs.  B.  had  there  shown  an 
entire  claret-jugful  of  disinterested  regard  for  mamma's 
social  triumphs  ;  and  how  in  yonder  brooch  sparkled  the 
earnest  hope  of  Mrs.  C.  for  much  future  entertainment  at 
the  house  into  which  her  precious  trinket  had  found  its 
way.  Friends  !  Ah  me,  what  a  sirocco  of  satire  the  little 
word  carries  with  it,  when  used  in  the  hard  heartless 
sense  of  our  drawing-room  deceptions,  withering  and 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


139 


shrivelling  before  its  breath  the  fresh  green  lusty  life  of 
real  friendship,  and  leaving  in  its  dreary  wake  only  the 
harsh  dry  ashes  of  selfishness,  guile,  vanity  ! 

Blanche  and  Marie  were  just  reaching  the  terminus  of 
my  toilette  when  mamma  entered  the  room.  Discover- 
ing that  I  was  dressed,  she  turned  and  spoke  to  Henry, 
as  yet  invisible.  "  You  may  bring  it  in,  Henry." 

"  It  "  proved  to  be  a  bronze  of  considerable  size  and  of 
considerable  seeming  weight.  Henry  placed  it  on  a 
table  and  retired. 

"  From  Mr.  Delano,"  mamma  enlightened  me,  hand- 
ing me  that  gentleman's  card. 

The  subject  of  the  bronze  was  a  young  girl,  not  clad 
in  anything  of  a  strikingly  cumbersome  nature,  with  her 
dishevelled  hair  making  flexuous  erratic  lines  along 
shapely  shoulder  and  firm  bounteous  bosom  :  one 
exquisite  arm  supported  her  drooping  head  upon  a 
jagged  picturesque  mass  of  vine-wreathen  rock.  At 
the  statue's  base  was  carved  the  name  Oenone.  As  I 
watched  the  figure  these  lines  from  Tennyson's  poem — 
that  chaste  pastoral  which  tells  with  such  masterful 
melody  how  the  poor  Trojan  shepherdess  lamented  her 
lover's  falsity — murmured  itself  through  my  memory  : 

"She,  leaning  on  a  fragment  twined  with  vine, 
Sang  to  the  stillness  till  the  mountain-shade 
Sloped  downward  to  her  seat  in  the  upper  cliff." 

"  It's  altogether  too  pretty  a  gift  for  you  to  frown 
over,"  presently  commented  mamma. 

I  had  been  frowning,  but  smoothed  my  forehead  very 
promptly  on  being  told  so.  "  How  queer  that  he  sent 
it  at  such  a  late  hour,"  I  murmured.  "  It's  very 
pretty.  By  the  bye,  mamma,  you  remember  who 
Oenone  was,  don't  you  ?  "  Just  here  I  laughed,  a  trifle 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

harshly.  "  He  might  have  chosen  a  more  suitable 
subject.  Perhaps  he  meant  to  hazard  a  little  downright 
disagreeable  prophecy,  you  know." 

''Pshaw,  Helen,"  was  the  soft  reproval.  "I  came 
up  here,  my  dear,  to  bid  you  good-by,  and  so  avoid 
anything  like  a  public  leave-taking."  After  which 
mamma  folded  me  to  her  bosom.  The  folding  lasted 
six  good  seconds.  She  then  kissed  me,  with  gentle 
deliberation,  upon  each  cheek.  The  kissing  possibly 
occupie,d  six  seconds  more.  She  then  remarked  "  God 
bless  you."  Very  soon  afterward  I  went  out  into  the 
hall  and  found  Fuller  waiting  for  us. 

I  can't  remember  half  the  people,  women,  and  men, 
who  made  me  most  impressive  adieus  in  the  hall.  It 
was  a  delicious  relief  finally  to  discover  myself  alone  in 
the  carriage  with  Fuller,  being  driven  fleetly  depotward. 
I  felt  very  much  as  some  cat  would  feel  for  which 
a  dozen  or  so  of  affectionately-disposed  children  had 
been  exhibiting  their  several  artless  modes  of  regard, 
in  holding  it  now  by  the  tail,  now  by  the  ear,  now 
by  both  together  ;  but  which  has  sprung  away  from  all 
such  innocent  fondling,  and  somewhere  safely  ambushed, 
licks  kself  in  grave  displeasure. 

Well,  the  cars  rattled  us  to  Philadelphia,  and  here  we 
are.  I  wonder  if  Fuller's  cigar  has  approached  annihil- 
ation by  this  time.  Perhaps  he  has  an  instinct,  an 
intuition,  that  I  am  disobeying  orders,  and  doesn't  like 
it.  I  shouldn't,  if  I  were  he  and  had  any  such  suspi- 
cion. Undoubtedly  it  behooves  me  to  recollect  that  a 
certain  promise  about  loving,  honoring,  and  obeying 
is  not  yet  twenty-four  hours  old. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

|OV.  12.— -After  considerable  wandering  we  are 
home  at  last.  We  staid  in  Philadelphia  four 
days,  and  from  Philadelphia  journeyed  to 
Baltimore,  where  we  made  another  pause  of  four  days. 
Thence  to  Washington,  and  from  Washington  home. 

Mamma  has  had  a  whole  floor  charmingly  fitted  up 
for  us  in  our  absence.  She  has  given  me  a  lovely 
sleeping-room  with  boudoir  attached,  and  adjoining  this 
a  sleeping-room  for  Fuller,  and  still  further  on  a  cosey 
study  or  library  or  smoking-room,  or  whatever  is  the 
proper  name  for  it.  I  can't  help  preferring  smoking- 
room,  as  my  husband's  personal  habits  are  not,  after  nine 
days  of  honey-moon,  wholly  unknown  to  me  ;  and  I 
usually  like  to  call  a  spade  a  spade. 

"I  am  so  glad  you  telegraphed  yesterday  about 
getting  home  to-day,"  mamma  informed  me,  not  a  long 
while  after  our  return.  "  I've  been  arranging  a  pleasant 
little  dinner  for  this  evening." 

I  moaned,  but  she  did  not  hear  me.  The  spirit  has 
its  voice  of  silence.  "  I'm  glad  it  is  little,  mamma. 
Travelling,  you  know,  rather  unfits  one  for  ponderous 
entertainments. " 

"  Certainly,  my  dear.  You  shall  take  a  rest  this 
afternoon"  (the  quiet  command  of  her  tone  seemed  as 


I42  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

natural  now  to  my  married  ears  as  it  had  once  seemed 
to  my  ears  maidenly),  "  and  by  six  o'clock  you  will 
feel  in  every  manner  refreshed  again.  After  dinner 
we  are  going  to  the  theatre.  I  suppose  you  have 
heard  about  those  horrifying  ballet-dancers  at  Niblo's  : 
we  are  going  to  be  horrified." 

"  But  mamma — " 

"The  thing  is  done  constantly  by  nice  people,  my 
dear,"  was  her  august  interruption.  "  We  shall  have  a 
box,  you  know." 

"Has  Fuller  heard  of  the  arrangement?"  I  ques- 
tioned. 

"  Oh,  yes  ;  I  spoke  of  it  this  morning,  just  before  he 
went  out.  The  idea  seemed  to  please  him.  By  the 
bye,"  mamma  added,  producing  a  little  packet  of  letters 
from  her  pocket,  "your  husband's  name  reminds  me, 
Helen,  that  these  should  have  been  given  him  immedi- 
ately upon  his  arrival.  My  forgetfulness  is  to  be  blamed 
for  the  delay.  Please  say  this,  if  you  see  him  before  I 
do." 

She  placed  the  letters  upon  a  table  near  at  hand. 
"  How  odd  it  seems  for  Fuller's  letters  to  be  sent  here," 
I  laughed,  approaching  the  table  and  taking  them  up. 
"This  envelope  is  directed  with  some  rather  important 
flourishes.  I'll  open  it  and  see  who  writes  so  pomp- 
ously." 

My  own  hand  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  open  the 
envelope,  when  mamma's  caught  it  firmly  by  the  wrist. 
"  Do  nothing  of  the  sort,  Helen,"  rang  her  shrill  tren- 
chant tones.  "It  is  idle  to  suppose  that  Fuller  would 
be  anything  but  annoyed  by  such  a  proceeding  on  your 
part." 

The  old  cowardice  which  has  made  me  succumb  so 
often  before  that  imperative  voice  and  face,  was  waving 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

its  white  flag  now  from  the  ramparts  of  my  will ;  but 
suddenly  a  prompt  bold  resolve  sprang  forth  and  struck 
down  the  craven  signal. 

"  Pray  let  go  my  wrist,  mamma.  And  pray  remem- 
ber that  as  Fuller's  wife  I  choose  to  follow  the  prompt- 
ings of  my  own  judgment  in  all  such  matters  as  this." 
The  words  were  steadily  given,  but  I  felt  my  throat 
quiver  as  I  spoke  them.  "  If  I  see  fit  to  open  this  let- 
ter, or  any  letter  addressed  to  my  husband,  only  he  has 
the  right  either  of  reprimand  or  veto." 

Her  clasp  on  my  wrist  tightened.  "  But  in  your  hus- 
band's absence  I  shall  assume  the  right  of  preventing  so 
stupid  an  action  !  "  The  next  instant  she  had  snatched 
the  letters  from  my  hold  by  means  of  her  disengaged 
hand,  the  movement  being  made  with  such  crafty  sud- 
denness that  until  its  object  was  fully  gained  I  did  not 
even  begin  to  realize  what  had  been  done.  Then,  how- 
ever, I  am  sure  that  my  face  grew  very  white  indeed. 

"  Return  me  those  letters,  mamma,"  I  just  murmured 
and  no  more. 

She  swept  toward  the  door,  with  knit  brows  and  back- 
thrown  head.  "  They  shall  be  returned  to  you  only 
with  Fuller's  consent.  I  scarcely  think  that  the  gaining 
of  his  consent  will  be  a  very  easy  matter,  by  the  bye. 
If  I  understand  him,  he  is  not  the  man  to  permit  any 
such  absurd  terms  of  matrimonial  confidence  as. these 
which  you  propose  inaugurating." 

"  But  surely,"  I  made  effort  to  answer  with  calmness, 
"  my  right  to  possess  these  letters  and  to  use  them  as  I 
may  please,  surpasses  your  right  to  prevent  me  from 
doing  either." 

Mamma  gave  a  lazily  sarcastic  laugh,  whilst  pausing 
just  at  the  threshold  of  the  room.  "  Of  course,  Helen, 
if  I  were  to  see  you  in  the  act  of  depositing  your  head 


144  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

among  those  blazing  coals  yonder,  it  would  be  brazen 
presumption  for  me  to  interfere."  After  that  she  lifted 
a  warning  finger  and  let  it  slowly  oscillate,  for  a  mo- 
ment, midway  between  mouth  and  eyes.  "Be  careful, 
my  dear,  or  at  some  future  time  you  will  commit  some 
worse  folly  than  this,  from  whose  consequences  it  will 
not  be  in  my  power  to  save  you." 

I  sat  down  in  front  of  the  fire,  after  she  was  gone,  and 
stared  into  it.  Its  blaze  and  its  crackle  seemed  girding 
at  me.  More  than  once  a  fierce  impulse  swept  burn- 
ingly  through  my  blood,  to  rise  up  and  find  mamma  and 
tear,  if  possible,  those  letters  from  her  keeping.  But 
when  I  did  rise  up  it  was  only  to  pace  the  floor  with 
swift  nervous  steps.  It  needs  vast  power,  sometimes, 
for  one  "  to  burst  the  bonds  of  habit."  Here  were  my 
rights  of  wifehood  being  insolently  scoffed  at,  and  be- 
yond the  mere  natural  disclaimer  which  will  leave  the 
lips  of  one  wronged  and  trampled  upon,  I  had  made  no 
effort  to  assert  myself,  to  hold  my  own,  to  throw  down 
the  gauntlet  before  injustice  and  tyranny. 

"  And  yet,"  presently  counselled  that  prudence  which 
so  often  treads  upon  the  vanishing  skirts  of  passion, 
* '  you  have  acted  wisely  in  avoiding  all  violence  of  de- 
fence. When  next  you  see  Fuller,  let  him  hear  your 
story  and  judge  your  cause.  Even  if  he  disapproves  the 
action  you  meditated,  he  must  likewise  disapprove  your 
mother's  unauthorized  counteraction.  He  cannot — be- 
lieve with  entire  faith  that  he  cannot — take  part  against 
you  in  a  matter  of  such  decisive  import." 

It  was  about  at  this  stage  of  my  reflections,  and  whilst 
I  was  still  pacing  the  floor  from  end  to  end,  though  now 
with  slackened  progress,  that  my  foot  struck   against 
something  almost  too  light  to  be  called  an  impediment 
The  something  proved  a  letter,  evidently  one  of  those 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  j^ 

for  the  possession  of  which  mamma  had  esteemed  her 
little  touch  of  brute  force  clearly  justifiable.  The  envel- 
ope was  white  and  of  rather  dainty  texture,  I  noticed. 
As  I  read  Fuller's  name  upon  it,  a  conviction  at  once 
possessed  me  to  the  effect  that  I  had  seen  the  same 
handwriting  somewhere  before  now.  I  have  always 
prided  myself  on  my  memory  for  nearly  any  handwrit- 
ing once  seen.  Years  ago  in  school  I  had  made  parade 
of  this  accomplishment  and  won  for  it  much  applausive 
notice.. 

I  had  seen  before  the  handwriting  upon  the  envelope 
which  I  then  held.  But  where  had  I  seen  it  ?  Perhaps 
the  postmark  of  the  letter  might  tell  me.  I  looked,  and 
discovered  the  post-mark  to  be  "  New  York."  No; 
there  was  not  any  clue  here.  At  length  I  fell  to  pacing 
the  room  again,  with  a  hand  pressed  against  either  tem- 
ple, trying  hard — somehow  trying  very  hard  indeed — 
to  remember. 

"  It's  a  woman's  writing,  of  course,"  left  my  lips, 
presently,  in  tones  of  low  deliberation.  And  then  it  all 
flashed  across  me.  I  saw  the  croquet-ground  at  Pine- 
side,  lit  cheerily  with  the  bright  autumn  weather ;  I  saw 
a  servant  handing  me  a  letter ;  I  saw  Fuller  and  Mel- 
.ville  Delano  and  Selina  Matthers  standing  not  far  off. 

The  next  instant  I  had  paused  in  the  centre  of  the 
room,  and  was  holding  the  letter  tightly  compressed  be- 
tween both  palms,  and  was  staring  straight  into  an  oppo- 
site mirror  with  very  very  startled  eyes. 

"  Oh,  no,"  I  heard  and  saw  myself  whisper,  in  a 
frightened  husky  way  ;  "  oh,  no,  no,  no  !  It  can't  be  ; 
it  isn't."  Then  I  held  the  letter  at  arm's  length  from 
me,  and  glared  upon  it. 

Not  a  chance  of  my  being  in  error.  I  should  have 
known  the  shape  of  those  gliding  willowy  characters 
7 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

anywhere,  momentary  as  had  been  my  last*meeting 
with  them. 

I  laid  the  letter  upon  the  table,  and  sat  down  again  in 
front  of  the  fire.  It  had  seemed  right  enough  to  break 
the  seal  of  that  other  envelope ;  but  not  for  all  the 
world  would  I  have  broken  the  seal  of  this.  Here  was 
perhaps  something  which  Fuller  wished  to  hide  from 
me.  Even  the  possibility  of  such  a  wish  transformed 
those  two  thin  walls  of  paper  into  a  very  fortress  of  de- 
fence. 

Immediately  after  seating  myself  this  second  time,  I 
made  a  spasmodic  and  abortive  attempt  to  pooh-pooh 
the  whole  matter,  the  whole  matter  having,  of  course,  a 
sufficient  understanding  of  its  importance  obstinately  t*> 
resist  being  pooh-poohed.  After  a  while  I  took  the 
much  wiser  course  of  asking  myself  what  good  and 
-egitimate  reasons  I  had  for  feeling  (as  I  did  feel) 
anxious,  nervous,  dispirited.  The  result  of  this  self- 
questioning  was  more  satisfactory.  There  was  only  a 
dim  doubt  possible  that  the  letter  which  had  reached 
Fuller  from  the  hotel  during  his  stay  at  Pineside,  had 
not  been  written  by  the  woman  in  whose  company  I 
saw  him  a  few  hours  later.  Admitting  to  my  own  mind 
that  she  had  written  this  letter,  I  must  also  admit  Ful- 
ler's account  to  mamma  of  her  having  done  so  with  no 
other  right  than  such  as  may  be  assumed  by  persons  of 
her  lawless  character  toward  one  with  whom,  if  ac- 
.quainted  at  all,  she  is  only  on  terms  of  slight  acquaint- 
ance. And  now,  if  this  creature  had  written  once  from 
some  such  daring  motive,  might  she  not  have  written 
again  from  a  motive  precisely  similar  ?  There  lay  the 
bright  side  of  the  matter  :  on  the  bright  side  I  must  de- 
termine to  look.  Never  mind  what  dark  views  could  be 
taken  :  let  my  eyes  refuse  to  accept  them. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  i^j 

Fuller  had  said  something,  before  he  went  out,  on 
the  subject  of  returning  to  dine  at  home.  Just  before 
he  left  the  house,  mamma  must  have  mentioned  her 
plans  for  the  evening.  As  he  had  agreed  to  these  plans, 
there  was  every  chance  of  my  seeing  him  privately  at 
some  time  during  the  next  few  hours.  I  longed,  heart 
and  soul,  for  that  private  meeting.  I  felt  that  all  occu- 
pation was  impossible  until  it  took  place.  I  wished 
that  I  might  bridge  with  sleep  the  interval  between  then 
and  now. 

Presently  Blanche  came  to  tell  me  that  lunch  was 
ready,  and  I  sent  her  away  with  the  intelligence  that  I 
cared  for  no  lunch  whatever.  Not  long  afterward  I 
threw  myself  on  the  bed,  and  tried  to  make  the  recol- 
lection of  last  night's  clamorous  jolting  experiences  in  a 
sleeping-car  operate  persuasively  toward  the  enjoyment 
of  a  little  real  slumber.  The  attempt  was  at  length  suc- 
cessful. I  fell  asleep.  And  during  my  sleep  I  dreamed 
an  ugly  ugly  dream. 

No  matter  what  the  dream  was,  Diary.  Dreams  take 
such  hideous  liberties  with  the  probable,  sometimes. 
They  are  a  kind  of  blurred  and  cracked  mirror,  very 
often,  in  which  we  see  those  whom  we  love  the  best 
distorted  and  misshapen  almost  beyond  recognition. 

I  awoke  in  a  state  of  miserable  shivering,  and  knew 
by  the  room's  dimness  that  it  was  quite  late.  Through 
the  half-closed  door  which  led  into  Fuller's  room  there 
was  streaming  a  volume  of  gas-light.  From  the  same 
direction  came  Fuller's  voice,  carelessly  humming  a 
melody. 

I  sat  for  a  little  while  on  the  edge  of  the  bed,  trying 
to  shake  off  the  dismal  effects  of  that  ugly  ugly  dream. 
This  was  not  at  all  an  easy  operation,  I  soon  learned. 
At  length  I  rose  and  went  up  to  the  table  on  which  I 


I48  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

had  laid  a  certain  letter.  The  letter  was  there  still. 
I  placed  it  in  my  pocket,  and  entered  my  husband's 
room. 

He  stood  before  his  dressing-table  in  full  evening 
costume,  evidently  having  just  completed  his  toilette 
for  dinner.  "  Awake  at  last,  Helen?"  he  called  out, 
on  seeing  me.  "  I  was  bound  I  wouldn't  spoil  your 
siesta,  for  I  knew  you  must  be  tired.  Blanche  came 
upstairs  to  dress  you  for  dinner,  but  I  sent  her  away. 
By  the  bye,  it's  ridiculously  late,  if  you've  anything 
special  to  do.  We're  to  dine  a  half  an  hour  earlier  than 
usual,  on  account  of  that  theatre-party.  Your  mother 
said  she'd  told  you  all  about  it." 

"  Yes,"  I  assented.  *"  Mamma  told  me."  I  had  be- 
gun to  feel  certain,  by  this  time,  that  mamma  had  me'n- 
tioned  nothing  to  Fuller  of  what  had  transpired  in  the 
morning  between  herself  and  me.  Since  she  had  left 
me  to  break  the  ice,  I  quickly  determined  to  break  it 
with  one  decisive  stroke. 

"  There  are  some  letters  for  you,  Fuller,"  I  com- 
menced, the  carelessness  in  my  manner  being  a  trifle 
overdone,  possibly.  "  Did  mamma  give  them  to 
you  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  Indeed  ?  "  Silence.  The, ice  needed  a  second  blow. 
"  Perhaps  she  didn't  speak  of — of  a  little  matter  which 
occurred  between  us  with  reference  to  those  letters,"  I 
presently  went  on,  my  voice  having  grown  rather  un- 
steady by  this  time. 

Fuller  looked  at  me  curiously.  "A  little  matter, 
Helen  ?  Do  you  mean  anything  unpleasant  ?  I  should 
judge  so  from  your  very  grave  face." 

"Then  you  would  be  judging  correctly.  Mamma 
came  into  my  room  this  morning  with  some  letters, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Fuller,  which  she  said  were  for  you.  I  wanted  to  open 
one  of  them;  but  before  I  could  do  so  she  snatched 
them — snatched  them  as  we  would  snatch  anything 
valuable  from  a  mischievous  child — and  quitted  me  in 
full  possession  of  her  spoil.  Of  course  I  was  very 
angry.  I  think  that  I  had  every  reason  for  being  very 
angry,  Fuller." 

This  last  sentence  left  my  lips  between  two  quick 
catches  of  the  breath.  His  face  had  been  hardening 
through  the  past  moment  or  so,  and  I  knew  for  a  clear 
certainty  the  fact  of  his  displeasure,  now.  But  was  it 
displeasure  because  of  mamma's  interference,  or  because 
of  something  widely  different  from  that?  If  only  it 
should  prove  the  former  !  My  anxiety,  whilst  I  waited 
for  his  answer,  was  a  keen  pain  to  me. 

The  answer  was  not  long  in  coming.  "  You  wished  to 
open  one  of  my  letters,  Helen  ?  Did  you  suppose  that 
I  would  approve  such  a  course  on  your  part?  " 

My  heart  sank  within  me,  at  that.  "  No,  Fuller,"  I 
murmured.  "  One  may  act  without  thinking,  as  I 
acted  then." 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders  sullenly  and  gave  his  head 
an  impatient  toss.  "  Thoughtlessness  is  so  near  culpa- 
bility, sometimes." 

I  felt  the  tears  rush  to  my  eyes.  "  You  can't  accuse 
me  of  any  wilful  desire  to  displease  you  !  "  I  burst  forth, 
passionately  and  bitterly.  "  I  have  no  feeling  for  or 
against  your  opening  my  letters  ;  it  just  seems  quite  a 
matter  of  course  that  you  should  act  precisely  according 
to  your  pleasure  as  regards  them,  Fuller.  For  this 
reason  I  have  been  thoughtless  ;  and  for  this  reason 
only." 

"  I  have  not  the  least  desire  ever  to  open  your  let- 
ters," he  coldly  stated,  though  the  hard  look  had  now 


jc;o  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

nearly  left  his  face.  "  Pray  let  it  he  understood  for  the 
future  that  what  the  postman  brings  you  is  yours  un- 
exceptionably ;  that  what  he  brings  me,  is  mine  ii}  the 
same  manner." 

I  felt  chilled  through  and  through,  "  Certainly,  if  you 
wish  it,  Fuller.  I  have  one  question  to  ask  you, 
however,  before  we  drop  this  subject.  Do  you  consider 
mamma  justified  in  snatching  those  letters  from  my 
hand  ?  " 

He  walked  toward  his  dressing-table  and  appeared 
to  absorb  himself  for  a  moment  in  what  the  mirror  had 
to  tell  him  about  his  white  necktie.  Then  he  folded  his 
arms,  faced  me,  and  said  firmly: 

"  She  was  not  justified.  You  had  a  better  right  to 
open  the  letter  than  she  to  interfere." 

If  my  face  wasn't  brilliant,  after  that,  it  ought  to  have 
been.  Before  answering  him  I  had  reduced  the  dis- 
tance between  us  to  an  inappreciable  quantity.  "  Al- 
most my  own  wrords,  Fuller!"  I  cried.  "I  was  sure 
you  couldn't  take  part  against  me.  I—"  And  then 
tears  quite  destroyed  my  voice,  as  I  laid  a  hand  tenderly 
upon  his  shoulder. 

"My  dear,"  he  tranquilly  began,  taking  out  his  watch 
in  a  businesslike  way  that  somehow  made  me  with- 
draw my  hand  at  once  and  not  let  it  steal  about  his  neck 
as,  a  second  before,  it  had  wanted  to  do — "  My  dear, 
there  are  just  fifteen  minutes  left  you  to  dress  in.  I 
really  think  you  had  better  ring  for  Blanche,  unless  you 
mean  to  dine  with  the  Walters  and  John  Driscoll  just  as 
you  are.  And  I  don't  honestly  think  that  such  a  cos- 
tum^  would  be  at  all  suitable." 

"Nor  I."  A  little  laugh  followed  my  words.  He 
might  slight  me  like  this  if  he  chose,  but  he  should  not 
have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  my  wound.  "By  the 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  i$i 

bye,  Fuller,  you  were  wrong  in  letting  me  sleep  so  late. 
I  hope  dinner  will  not  have  to  be  postponed  on  my  ac- 
count." Then  I  moved  toward  the  door,  pausing  after 
I  had  gotten  a  few  steps  away  from  him. 

"  In  mamma's  forcible  seizure  of  those  letters,"  I 
added,  quietly,  "this  one  chanced  to  fall  upon  the 
floor.  She  didn't  observe  it ;  nor  did  I,  until  after  she 
had  left  the  room.  Here  it  is." 

I  held  out  the  letter.  He  came  promptly  forward 
and  took  it  from  my  hand.  I  tried  to  command  every 
muscle  of  my  own  face  whilst  I  watched  his.  I  cannot 
say  that  I  succeeded  perfectly  in  this.  Anyhow,  a  little 
betrayal  of  feeling  mattered  nothing,  for  the  moment. 
His  eyes  were  otherwise  engaged  than  in  watching 
me  whilst  he  read  the  superscription  upon  that  enve- 
lope. 

When  he  lifted  them  again  and  looked  at  me  fixedly, 
searchingly,  I  had  every  feature  under  control.  Let  me. 
tell  the  plain  hard  truth  :  his  color  had  heightened  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  a  doubt  ;  his  mouth  showed  one 
or  two  queer  nervous  twitches ;  added  to  this,  his 
head  moved  ever  so  slightly  from  side  to  side  when  he 
began  to  speak,  as  human  heads  will  sometimes  move 
when  the  grip  of  a  strong  embarrassment  has  them  well 
in  its  keeping. 

"All  right,  Helen.  Much  obliged."  He  walked 
quickly  away  from  me  whilst  uttering  the  words,  (whilst 
uttering  them  in  a  voice  thcf  tried  hard  to  be  careless, 
unaffected,  natural  ;  but  failed  completely)  breaking  the 
envelope  as  he  did  so. 

I  waited  to  hear  nothing  more.  I  had  heard  and 
seen  enough. 

I  went  into  my  own  room,  and  before  being  fully 
aware  of  my  occupation  I  had  rung  any  number  of  ab- 


[52  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

surdly  loud  bell-peals  for  Blanche.  She  appeared, 
presently,  looking  alarmed  beyond  language. 

Was  madame  sick  ?     Had  anything  happened. 

"  Yes,  Blanche,"  I  broke  forth,  loud-voiced  and  with 
a  certain  brisk  dash  of  manner,  happily  not  characteris- 
tic of  me.  "  Yes,  something  has  happened.  I've  over- 
slept myself  and  want  you  to  dress  me  before  it's  dinner- 
time." 

Blanche  didn't  precisely  execute  this  latter  command. 
I  suppose  that  I  kept  dinner  waiting  about  five  minutes. 
They  were  all  in  the  drawing-room  as  I  entered  : 
.vlamma,  Fuller,  John  Driscoll,  and  the  two  Walters. 

"We've  been  sorely  tempted  to  commence  dinner 
without  you,  Helen,"  rippled  mamma,  all  smiles  and 
suavity. 

"  But  I  refused  to  countenance  the  arrangement," 
added  John  Driscoll,  whilst  I  was  having  my  hand 
shaken  by  himself  and  Louis  Walters,  and  being  kissed 
by  Cornelia.  "It  would  never  have  done  on  the 
evening  of  your  return."  Somehow  I  felt  that  John 
Driscoll's  eyes  were  dealing  very  observantly  with  my 
face,  although  they  gave  no  pointed  indication  of  any 
fixed  scrutiny.  "  If  so,  he  is  familiar  enough  with  my 
various  shades  of  expression,"  I  remember,  thinking, 
"to  form  a  tolerably -accurate  judgment  of  how  I  feel 
just  at  present." 

*'  Isn't  she  looking  delightful  ?"  cried  Louis  Walters. 
"Dear,  why  don't  you  do  your  hair  like  that?"  this 
latter  question  being  amorously  addressed  to  his  wife. 
Louis  Walters  always  makes  love  to  his  wife — in  public. 
Even  privately,  by  the  way,  he  professes  to  adore  her. 
People  tell  me  that  he  usually  sings  her  praises  in  the 
ear  of  whatever  foolish  female  happens  just  then  to  be 
the  recipient  of  his  compromising  devotions.  And 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


153 


Cornelia  plays  her  part  in  the  odd  conjugal  travesty  with 
a  gusto  that  never  flags.  Tradition  recordeth  not 
whether  she,  for  her  part,  ever  entertains  with  impres- 
sive eulogies  of  her  husband  the  dynasty  of  devotees 
who  regularly  succeed  each  other  in  her  esteem ;  but  it 
is  certain  that  she  will  mention  "  darling  Louis"  in  the 
hearing  of  friends,  to  a  degree  of  audacity  that  some- 
times makes  the  repression  of  an  amused  smile  nothing 
except  painful  on  the  part  of  her  auditors.  What  a 
glaring  farce  it  all  is,  when  you  understand  the  goings- 
on  of  this  curious  couple  !  Assuredly  one  of  the  unen- 
lightened, meeting  them  for  the  first  time,  might  be 
prone  to  cavil  at  their  excess  of  matrimonial  fondness 
each  for  each.  On  all  occasions  when  together,  they 
combine  to  form  about  as  abominable  a  whited  sepul- 
chre as  I  know  of. 

My  place  at  dinner  was  between  Louis  Walters  and 
John  Driscoll.  I  fancy  that  neither  gentleman  found 
me  specially  entertaining.  I  sighed  a  great  mute  sigh 
of  relief  when  we  ladies  at  last  rose  from  the  table,  leav- 
ing Fuller  and  his  two  guests  to  their  coffee  and  cigar- 
ettes. "It  shan't  be  anything  but  cigarettes,  we 
promise,"  declared  Louis  Walters,  with  emphasis.  ' '  As 
soon  as  the  ladies  have  gotten  their  bonnets  on  they 
shall  find  us  prepared  to  join  them.  By  Jove  !  it's  time 
we  were  at  the  theatre  now  !  " 

"  You  don't  say  so,  dear,"  moaned  Cornelia.  "  Then 
we  shall  hurry  our  very  best.  I  didn't  want  to  miss  a 
bit  of  the  performance.  I  haven't  had  the  pleasure  of 
being  really  shocked  at  the  theatre  since  I  was  in  Paris, 
you  know.  Come,  Mrs.  Jeffreys  !  Come,  Helen  !  " 

I  made  hasty  work  of  getting  my  bonnet  on,  prompt- 
ed, possibly,  by  a  delicate  sympathy  with  Cornelia's  re- 
fined impulses  ;  and  (let  it  be  hoped  for  similar  reasons) 
7* 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN, 

mamma  did  the  same.  Some  very  brisk  driving  bro  light 
our  carnages  to  Niblo's  in  time  for  us  to  secure  the  last 
half  of  the  first  act.  Our  box  was  of  the  proscenium 
sort,  close  upon  the  stage,  and  containing  possibilities 
of  extreme  privacy  for  any  one  with  a  desire  to  see  and 
not  be  seen. 

I  confess  that  some  such  modest  inclination  possessed 
me  when,  not  yet  having  taken  my  seat,  I  looked  down 
at  the  stage  and  discerned  three  or  four  female  figures 
exchanging  pirouettes,  prances  and  caracoles  with  each 
other.  A  first  glance  at  these  figures  necessarily  result- 
ed in  the  observer's  discovery  what  their  costumes  were 
not :  it  was  only  after  a  little  while  that  one  could  deter- 
mine with  any  accuracy  at  all  how  far  they  had  managed 
to  escape  entire  nudity.  Then  by  slow  degrees  one  be- 
came aware  that  their  lack  of  normal  clothing  was  re- 
placed by  an  amplitude  of  flesh-colored  tights  and  an 
apologetic  yard  or  two  of  silk  or  satin  daintily  occupying 
the  physical  region  between  hip  and  arm-pit  and  gen- 
erously spangled.  All  these  ladies  were  smiling  as 
though  each  was  anxious  to  impress  her  audience  with 
two  facts  :  first,  "  I  am  not  cold ;  "  second,  "  I  am  not 
ashamed." 

"  Of  course  you  must  take  a  front  seat,  Helen,"  in- 
sisted Cornelia,  seeing  me  remain  in  the  background. 
"  Come,  now  ;  no  nonsense.  Recollect  that  you're  as 
much  married  as  either  your  mother  or  rrryself.  This 
won't  do  at  all ;  will  it,  Louis,  dear  ?  will  it,  John  Dris- 
coll?" 

Cornelia  meant  that  the  rapid  selection  I  had  just 
made  of  a  chair  well  withdrawn  from  anything  like  con- 
spicuousness,  would  not  do  at  all.  Louis  echoed  his 
wife's  opinion  on  this  subject  with  a  husbandly  prompti- 
tude sweet  to  hear  and  see.  As  for  John  Driscoll,  he 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


155 


seated  himself  at  my  side  and  drawled  out  a  very  indif- 
ferent response  about  everybody  being  allowed  to  sit 
where  preference  dictated. 

Cornelia  tossed  her  head  and  took  a  chair  beside 
mamma,  who  appeared  serenely  unobservant  of  the 
whole  matter.  "  No,  Louis,  love,"  she  presently  burst 
forth,  in  a  most  decisive  half- whisper.  "  You  can't  sit 
next  to  me,  dear.  That  seat  is  reserved  for  Mr.  Sum- 
merby.  I  saw  him  buying  a  ticket  as  we  came  in,  and 
of  course  he  will  presently  pay  us  a  visit." 

"  Very  well,  love,"  acquiesced  Louis  Walters,  resign- 
ing all  claim  to  the  seat  with  instant  amiability. 

I  gave  John  Driscoll  a  glance  more  full  of  disgust  than 
amusement.  "  This  farce  has  for  me  its  melancholy  side 
no  less  than  its  merry,"  I  murmured. 

"  Do  you  mean  what  is  going  on  there,"  (pointing  to- 
ward the  stage)  'f  or  here  ?  " 

Just  then  my  eye  caught  sight  of  two  shameless  pan- 
taletted  coryphees  dashing  at  each  other  with  voluptu- 
ously-posed arms.  "  Both,"  I  made  answer,  smiling  a 
derisive  little  smile. 

"You  are  out  of  humour  to-night,  Mrs.  Dobell." 
His  grave  eyes  were  full  upon  my  face.  "  I  trust  from 
no  serious  cause." 

That  last  sentence  made  me  start ;  it  was  so  unex- 
pected, yet  hit  me  so  surely  in  a  tender  place.  "  Cer- 
tainly from  no  serious  cause,  Mr.  Driscoll."  I  managed 
to  look  a  trifle  shocked,  a  trifle  mystified,  by  his  ques- 
tion. "  But  is  there  any  valid  reason  for  your  inquiry  ? 
Suppose  I  venture  to  contradict  you  about  my  hu- 
mor ?  " 

"  Ah,"  he  laughed,  gently,  "you  know  that  I  know 
you  too  well  for  any  such  contradiction  to  mislead  me. 
I  used  my  eyes  at  dinner,  pray  remember :  and  my 


I56  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

tongue,  too,  now  that  I  think  of  it.     You  made   me 
talk   so    copiously ;   me  who   am  not   gifted   with   any 
social  trait,  except  it  be  the  power  of  graceful  listen 
ing." 

His  words  were  ordinary  enough,  but  his  low  voice 
had  the  rich  ring  of  something  that  Cornelia  might  have 
thought  concealed  sentiment ;  that  I  chose  to  call  re- 
vealed sympathy.  I  suppose  the  iron  school  of  flirta- 
tion has  taught  him  so  perfectly  to  manage  the  mellow 
music  of  that  voice  as  to  make  for  him  the  task  of  say- 
Jng  nothing  and  meaning  much  comparative  baby-play. 
Well,  it  is  an  ill  wind,  et  cetera.  I  knew,  just  from 
those  few  trivial  words,  that  he  guessed  how  miserable 
I  was.  And  I  longed  to  tell  him  that  I  knew,  whisper- 
ing in  his  ear  whilst  the  music  deafened  those  about  us 
and  the  "  hired  animalisms"  behind  the  footlights  were 
earning  their  bread  and  cheese  with  such  gymnastic  en- 
ergy :  "You  are  Fuller's  friend.  You  are  my  friend. 
jf  he  has  judged  me  injuriously,  right  me  in  his  esteem. 
If  I  have  suspected  him  rashly,  prove  to  me  that  I  am  a 
fool  for  doing  so." 

This  is  what  I  longed  to  say.  And  there  seemed  a 
protective  helpful  influence  about  John  Driscoll's  mere 
presence,  this  evening,  which  sorely  tempted  me  to  say 
it. 

Perhaps  Summerby  the  Insufferable,  entering  our  box 
with  his  ultra-urbane  manners,  and  his  hard  coarse 
beauty  and  his  general  suggestion  of  one  struggling 
beneath  vigorous  disadvantages  to  be  a  gentleman,  was 
a  reason  for  my  keeping  silence.  When,  after  the  in- 
terruption necessarily  caused  by  his  entrance,  John  Dris- 
coll  and  I  resumed  our  conversation,  the  rich  ring  had 
somehow  lessened  in  his  voice  and  the  protective  help- 
ful signs  had  faded  from  his  manner. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN".  l$j 

By  this  time  dancing  had  given  place  to  a  more  strictly 
intellectual  species  of  entertainment,  viz.  :  drama.  It 
was  a  relief  to  observe  that  there  were  a  few  ladies  in 
the  company  who  did  not  scorn  the  hum-drum  propriety 
of  wearing  dresses  below  their  knees.  But  the  dramatic 
section  of  the  piece,  meagre  as  it  was,  appeared  to  con- 
tain very  few  energetic  performers.  The  leading  lady 
both  by  speech  and  by  movement  seemed  desirous  of 
telling  the  audience  that  she  felt  keenly  how  impossible 
was  her  hope  of  pleasing  them  in  long  clothes  ;  the 
leading  gentleman  rounded  his  rythmic  periods  with 
devil-may-care  elocution,  as  though  bitterly  conscious 
that  he  was  putting  his  fine  genius  to  the  base  use  of 
affording  the  dancers  time  to  change  their  dress/  "I 
should  be  so  much  funnier,"  seemed  to  remark  the  funny 
man,  "  if  you  good  people  wouldn't  consider  that  I  was 
postponing  a  platoon  of  Legs  every  time  my  lips  are 
opened."  As  for  the  villain,  "  how  can  my  villany 
freeze  your  blood,"  he  seemed  to  grumble,  "  when  these 
rampant  Bacchantes  are  doing  their  best  to  make  it 
boil  ?  " 

Presently  we  had  a  touch  of  lyric  art  from  a  jaunty 
little  female  of  the  soubrette  type.  "  Don't  you  think 
her  lovely  ?  "  Cornelia  wanted  to  know,  turning  round 
to  address  John  Driscoll  and  me.  "  And  do  you  hap- 
pen to  have  that  wonderful  lorgnette  of  yours  with  you, 
John  Driscoll  ?  I'm  so  miserably  near-sighted.  It  is 
always  delightful  to  my  poor  eyes." 

"  I  fancy  Mrs.  Walters  wants  to  rake  the  house  a  lit- 
tle," my  companion  remarked  to  me,  whilst  he  produced 
from  a  side-pocket  the  lorgnette  Cornelia  desired,  and 
handed  it  to  her. 

"Is  it  so  very  wonderful  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  It  has  great  power.     At  least  everybody  agrees  with 


i58 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


me  in  thinking  so.     I  picked  it  up  in  Paris  some  years 
ago." 

Cornelia  verified  his  prediction,  occasionally  levelling 
her  lorgnette  at  the  little  cantatrice,  but  principally  em- 
ploying it  in  ocular  voyages  through  the  neighboring 
orchestra  seats,  whilst  Summerby,  with  his  glossy  black 
moustache  (suggestive  of  bountiful  pomading)  not  many 
inches  from  her  ear,  kept  up  an  inaudible  current  of 
whispers  to  which  her  indulgent  smiles  inaudibly  and 
eloquently  responded. 

Somehow  my  own  eyes  followed  Cornelia's  during  her 
raking  process.  Here  and  there  among  the  orchestra- 
seats  I  discovered  a  familiar  face.  Then  my  gaze 
wandered  toward  the  opposite  boxes,  two  in  number. 
The  lower  box  contained  a  family  group  :  an  evident 
mamma,  a  no  less  evident  papa,  and  a  bevy  of  glad- 
faced  children.  The  upper  box  contained  three  ladies, 
whose  escort  (if  it  is  presumable  that  they  had  one) 
must  have  occupied  a  position  more  retired  than  my 
own,  since  he  (or  they)  could  not  be  discerned  from 
where  I  sat. 

My  eyes  are  good  far-sighted  eyes.  I  required  the 
assistance  of  no  lorgnette  in  ascertaining  whether  I  had 
•ever  seen  any  of  those  three  faces  previously.  My 
recognition  was  made  almost  on  the  instant.  I  mean 
my  recognition  of  a  certain  face  seen  twice  before  now  : 
once  on  the  piazza  of  the  hotel  near  Pineside,  once  at 
the  glove-counter  in  Stewart's. 

"  Talk  of  the  devil,"  says  the  old  proverb.  "  Think 
of  him,"  I  might  have  altered  it,  then.  Very  shortly 
afterward  the  first  act  ended.  Three  or  four  men  took 
prompt  advantage  of  the  curtain's  descent  to  enter  and 
pay  their  respects  to  mamma,  Cornelia  and  myself. 
Aleck  Sheffield  and  Charlie  Minard  made  conversation 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

an  imperative  matter  with  me  for  fully  ten  minutes. 
The  orchestra  had  begun  its  sonorous  prelude  by  the 
time  they  left  the  box.  Released  from  their  society, 
I  glanced  about  me  to  discover  that  Fuller  was  ab- 
sent. 

What  was  it  that  sent  a  sudden  stablike  pain  through 
my  heart  as  I  made  this  discovery  ?  Assuredly  his  ab- 
sence had  nothing  in  itself  to  cause  a  jot  of  surprise  or 
alarm  or  annoyance.  Ah  me  !  did  the  coming  event 
cast  its  shadow  ? 

The  prelude  ended ;  the  curtain  rose.  There  was  a 
thin  layer  of  drama  and  mediocrity ;  there  was  a  thick 
layer  of  dancing  and  indecency  ;  there  was  again  a  thin 
layer  of  drama  ;  and  so  on,  till  another  act  had  elocu- 
tionized itself  badly  and  pirouetted  itself  nakedly,  to 
completion. 

During  all  this  time  I  sat  with  a  miserable  dread  gain- 
ing force  moment  by  moment.  Fuller  was  still  absent. 
The  place  occupied  by  that  woman  in  the  front  of  the 
box  had  been  vacant  for  some  time  past.  I  don't  know 
that  I  allowed  myself  to  admit  any  definite  sequence 
between  these  two  facts.  But  they  remained  to  haunt 
me,  nevertheless.  A  loathsome  probability  would  press 
itself  into  my  thoughts.  "  The  play  is  beginning  to  iiy 
terest  you,  I  should  fancy,"  John  Driscoll  remarked,  as 
the  curtain  fell  for  a  second  time.  This  is  what  he  read 
(he  who  knows  me  so  well  !)  from  the  two  scarlet  spots 
which  I  felt  burning  on  my  cheeks  and  the  brightened 
light  which  I  knew  was  filling  my  eyes. 

"  I  am  going  to  borrow  your  extraordinary  lorgnette," 
I  stated,  for  answer.  "  I  want  to  discover  where  Fuller 
is  hiding  himself  all  this  time." 

He  leaned  toward  Mrs.  Walters,  who  appeared,  just 
then,  to  be  having  something  especially  sweet  whispered 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

in  her  ear  by  Summerby  the  Inexhaustible.  I  can't  say 
whether  or  no  John  Driscoll  broke  one  of  the  creature's 
compliments  cruelly  in  half  by  his  remark  to  Cornelia  ; 
anyhow  Cornelia  so  far  forgave  this  act  of  violation  as 
to  hand  him  the  lorgnette  languidly  over  her  shoulder, 
a  few  seconds  later. 

Just  as  I  raised  the  lorgnette  to  my  eyes  after  receiv- 
ing it  from  John  Driscoll,  mamma  addressed  a  remark 
to  my  companion  which  made  him  turn  momentarily 
away  from  me.  I  seized  the  opportunity  thus  given, 
and  levelled  the  instrument  full  upon  that  upper  box. 
Heavens,  what  power  it  had  !  I  could  almost  read  the 
programme  which  one  of  the  occupants  held  in  her  hand. 
As  for  the  rear  of  the  box,  that  could  have  no  secrets 
from  me,  though  the  gas  was  burning  rather  dimly ; 
perhaps  made  dim  with  intention.  Every  object  which 
could  be  seen  at  all,  I  saw  unmistakably.  The  two 
females  who  had  been  the  companions  of  that  other 
were  still  rather  conspicuously  seated  in  the  front  of  the 
box.  Behind  them  was  litter  vacancy,  unless  carpet 
and  chairs  deserve  a  more  dignified  name. 

But  on  a  sudden  I  received  a  forcible  reminder  that 
there  was  a  certain  corner  of  the  box  which  did  not 
come  within  my  field  of  vision.  One  of  the  two  females 
— a  vulgarly-dressed  beauty,  though  a  beauty  undenia- 
able — turned  her  head  away  from  her  companion  and 
smilingly  moved  her  lips.  The  lorgnette  gave  strong 
evidence  that  she  was  talking,  but  it  had  no  power  to 
reach  that  section  of  the  box  occupied  by  whomever 
she  addressed.  I  continued  my  scrutiny.  Presently  a 
laughing  face  (a  face  I  have  gotten  to  know  rather  well 
by  this  time)  was  thrust  forth  from  obscurity.  Its  owner 
was  evidently  saying  something  funny,  from  the  mirth 
with  which  her  words  were  received,  and  had  leaned  for- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  I6I 

ward  to  say  it.  Perhaps  a  minute  afterward,  somebody 
else  leaned  forward  also. 

A  man,  this  time. 

Fuller. 

The  face  was  visible  only  for  a  second  ;  then  with- 
drawn. 

It  seems  odd  to  state  it,  but  the  next  thing  that  I 
recollect  after  having  made  this  discovery  was  seeing 
John  Driscoll  close  at  my  side  whilst  he  held  up  the  lor- 
gnette I  had  been  using  and  spoke  in  brisk  pleasant 
tones.  "A  very  little  more,  Mrs.  Dobell,  and  my 
wonderful  lorgnette  might  have  taken  an  injurious  trip 
from  your  lap  to  the  floor.  Hereafter  you  will  oblige 
me  by  handling  it  less  carelessly." 

I  turned  my  face  toward  his,  trying  to  smile.  It 
must  have  been  ashen  pale,  and  the  smileless  smile 
must  ha-ve  rendered  it  paler.  "  Good  Heavens  !  "  he 
broke  out,  in  anxious  whisper;  "you  are  ill.  Let 
me—" 

"  No,  no,"  I  objected,  faintly,  putting  my  hand  upon 
his  arm.  Somehow  that  was  all  I  could  manage,  just 
then.  And  after  that  my  eyes  went  straight  toward 
the  box  again.  I  knew  that  his  own  followed  them. 
She  had  reappeared,  and  was  occupying  her  former 
conspicuous  place  near  the  two  others.  I  heard  John 
Driscoll  make  a  short  sound,  something  between  a  sigh 
and  a  groan. 

"  Did  you  discover  Fuller,  Mrs.  Dobell  ?" 

I  turned  and  faced  him,  at  this.  "Yes.  He  was  in 
that  opposite  box — the  upper  one.  Do  you  know  any 
of  those  " — "  ladies  "  stuck  in  my  throat — "  people,  Mr. 
Driscoll  ?  " 

He  avoided  my  look  instantly.  "  I  think  I  have  seen 
them  before."  Then  in  a  sort  of  eager  impatient  way 


1 62  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

he  searched  my  face,  asking  sharply  :  "  Do  you  know 
them  ?  " 

I  smiled  bitterly.  My  self-possession  was  coming 
back  to  me.  "  I  am  not  so  fortunate  as  you  are.  I  have 
only  seen  one  of  them  before." 

His  brows  gathered  themselves  in  puzzled  style. 
f '  May  I  ask  where  and  when  ?  " 

I  might  have  answered  him  with  entire  candor,  such  a 
cold  careless  apathetic  feeling  had  begun  to  possess  me  : 
but  just  at  this  moment  the  door  of  our  box  opened. 
We  both  turned  quickly  round.  Fuller  was  entering. 

"  Where  have  you  been  for  this  age  past,  Fuller?  " 
called  out  his  sister. 

"  I've  been  to  London  to  see  the  Queen,"  he  laughed, 
taking  a  seat  directly  behind  Cornelia. 

"Pshaw,  Fuller,"  she  persisted,  "  I  hope  it  isn't  a 
secret  where  you've  been.  Helen,  I  certainly  should 
not  tolerate  such  reticence,  if  I  were  you,  at  this  early 
conjugal  period." 

"Very  well,  Cornelia,"  he  responded  lightly,  "if 
you  will  have  facts,  I  met  an  old  friend  who  detained 
me  for  an  entire  act.  A  man.  You  don't  know  him." 

"  Let  us  all  be  thankful  that  it  was  a  man,"  murmured 
Mrs.  Walters  fervently,  again  placing  herself  under  the 
light  of  Summerby's  smile. 

yow  glibly  the  lie  had  left  his  lips  !  I  tried  to  hold 
steadily  the  programme  that  I  was  staring  at ;  no  one 
but  John  Driscoll  saw  my  hand  tremble. 

The  curtain  rose  three  more  times  before  the  perform- 
ance ended  and  we  all  prepared  to  go.  This  is  the 
thorough  extent  of  my  knowledge  regarding  what 
passed  on  the  stage  after  Fuller's  return.  John  Driscoll 
did  not  once  speak  to  me  (or  if  he  did  I  failed  to  hear 
him)  during  those  three  acts. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  16$ 

"  Helen,  you  don't  look  a  bit  well,"  commented  Cor- 
nelia, as  we  were  leaving  the  box. 

"  I  am  tired,"  I  stated,  placidly. 

Tired  !  ah,  how  true  that  was  !  I  recollect  glancing 
at  Cornelia  and  wishing  that  we  might  change  natures, 
she  and  I.  Yes,  if  I  could  only  shuffle  off  my  con- 
science, my  sense  of  decorum,  my  power  of  loving,  just 
as  though  they  were  worn-out  garments,  and  take  in 
their  stead  all  which  helped  to  make  Mrs.  Walters 
happy  after  her  kind  of  happiness — even  including 
Summerby  the  Adhesive  !  It  did  not  pay,  I  told  my- 
self, to  have  what  is  called  soul.  With  refinement  of 
feeling,  comes  a  proportionate  power  of  suffering. 
Sensitiveness  so  often  means  agony  that  the  downright 
jelly-fish  bluntness — perhaps  "the  straitened  fore- 
head of  the  fool  "  himself,  was  better  in  this  world  of 
shocks  and  wounds  and  wickedness. 

Well,  that  is  what  I  told  myself  then.  I  don't  tell 
myself  so  any  longer.  Certain  moods  give  birth  to 
certain  ideas.  No  ;  I  prefer  my  own  miserable  identity 
to  anything  a  whit  more  callous.  Cornelias  and  people 
of  her  sort  have  their  "  lower  pains,"  perhaps,  but  they 
have  their  "lower  pleasures"  likewise.  They  cannot 
love  as  I  have  loved. 

As  I  do  love  still !  Thank  God  for  that !  Fuller 
could  do  nothing  so  vile  that  it  would  alter  my  love  for 
him.  Last  year  I  would  have  laughed  at  the  possibil- 
ity of  my  writing  down  this  sentence  about  any  living 
man.  Now  I  see  that  with  myself,  at  least,  once  to 
love  is  always  to  love.  Not  if  he  lied  a  thousandfold 
more  shamelessly  than  I  heard  him  lie  to-night ;  not  if 
he  stole,  drank,  cheated — 

Pshaw !  what  am  I  writing  ?  It  is  very  late.  I 
ought  to  have  been  in  bed  long  ago.  Let  me  think : 


1 64  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

there  isn't  much  more  to  tell.  Mamma  and  John  Dris- 
coll  and  I  took  one  carnage  ;  Cornelia  and  Summerby 
occupied  the  other.  "  Fuller  and  I  are  going  to  walk 
up  town,  if  you'll  let  us,"  Louis  Walters  announced  to 
mamma  and  myself.  *'  Mr.  Summerby  very  kindly 
offers  to  go  home  with  that  dear  Cornelia  of  mine,  and 
John  Driscoll  agrees  to  take  Fuller's  place  here." 

"  You  are  a  pair  of  wretched  deserters,"  gracefully 
succumbed  mamma.  "  I  suppose  you  are  going  to 
smoke.  Well,  it  isn't  the  first  time  that  Helen  and  I 
have  been  ignored  for  a  cigar.  Good-night." 

So  they  left  us.  During  the  ride  home  mamma 
talked,  John  Driscoll  talked,  I  talked.  I  have  forgotten 
what  everybody  said. 

John  Driscoll  left  us  at  our  door.  He  pressed  my 
hand  as  he  bade  me  good-night.  I  suppose  it  meant 
sympathy.  He  pities  me  ;  but  his  pity  does  not  gall 
me  as  some  men's  would. 

After  we  had  gotten  indoors  mamma  gave  vent  to  a 
few  suave  commonplaces.  I  suppose  that  they  were 
suitably  answered  ;  and  then  I  came  upstairs.  The 
greater  trouble  absorbs  the  less.  I  feel  rather  forgiv- 
ingly toward  her  when  I  recall  this  morning's  occur- 
rence. 

Fuller  came  in  some  time  ago.  I  can  hear  his  heavy 
breathing  in  the  next  room,  when  I  stop  my  writing. 
It  sounds  like  the  sleep  of  the  just. 

Is  there  yet  a  chance  that  all  may  not  be  so  very  dark 
for  me  ?  I  wish  I  had  made  an  effort  to  get  the  truth 
from  John  Driscoll :  he  must  know.  Anyhow,  I  do  not 
yet  deal  in  certainties.  Relations  of  the  sort  I  dread 
may  have  once  existed  between  Fuller  and  that  woman 
previous  to  his  marriage ;  and  what  now  looks  so  cul- 
pable in  him  may  be  but  a  final  snapping  of  the  chain. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


I65 


I  wish  I  could  believe  this.  Faith  should  be  born,  of 
love,  and  my  love  passeth  understanding.  Indeed,  till 
to-night  I  have  never  dreamed  of  its  depth. 

It  is  very  strange.  I  ought  to  feel  angry  and  bitter  : 
I  can  only  feel  miserable  beyond  words.  But  reflection, 
introspection,  will  advantage  me  nothing. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

(OV.  13. — I  had  some  coffee  brought  to  my 
room,  this  morning,  at  a  very  late  hour.  But 
wfoen  the  beginning  of  one's  sleep  dates  from 
about  m  dawn,  one  is  apt  to  breakfast  unseasonably. 
Fuller  was  in  the  reception-room,  reading  the  paper, 
when  I  went  downstairs  ;  so  much  I  discovered  through 
the  crevice  of  the  opened  door,  before  entering. 

He  bade  me  good-morning  with  all  his  old  cheerful- 
ness. Yesterday  I  would  have  gone  forward  to  get  his 
kiss  ;  nor  not  one,  but  half  a  dozen.  To-day,  after  hav- 
ing gently  returned  his  good-morning,  I  pretended  to 
be  looking  for  a  book  in  one  of  the  little  low  book- 
cases at  the  back  of  the  room.  With  the  corners  of  my 
eyes  I  saw  him  stare  steadily  in  my  direction  for  several 
seconds.  Then  he  resumed  his  paper,  giving  it  a  rather 
vigorous  rattle. 

I  stood  there  beside  the  book-case  with  an  open 
volume  in  my  hand  and  a  falsehood  on  my  face — the 
falsehood  of  appearing  engrossed  by  the  volume.  In 
reality  it  was  all  the  dumbest  of  dumb  shows.  I  creased 
my  forehead  meditatively  and  pursed  my  mouth  inter- 
estedly, seeming  to  be  detained  at  one  page  by  an 
attractive  sentence,  then  hastening  over  a  few  more 
pages  at  full  speed,  then  being  detained  again.  The 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  ify 

book  may  have  been  Dickens  or  it  may  have  been  Rus- 
kin  :  I  beljeve  we  have  both  authors  in  the  library. 

I  had  come  there  with  the  fixed  resolve  that  I  would 
make  an  effort  to  find  out  from  Fuller  on  what  terms  he 
stood  with  that  woman.  If  he  had  deceived  mamma 
and  through  her  deceived  me,  and  was  now  casting 
pitch  at  my  wifely  name,  I  at  least  deserved  to  know  it. 
Indeed,  I  was  quite  able  by  this  time  to  look  firmly  in 
the  face  all  the  probable  facts  which  might  be  deduced 
from  his  present  culpability — if  culpability  in  truth  it 
was.  He  had  wanted  money.  Mamma's  flattering 
courtesies  had  tempted  him  into  the  Newport  intimacy 
with  me  ;  an  intimacy  whose  motive  was  the  ultimate 
getting  of  money.  Hypocrisy  in  his  courtship  ;  hypoc- 
risy more  vile  in  his  marriage  ;  hypocrisy  and  cruelty 
and  insult  in  the  masquerade  marked  out  for  himself 
after  marriage  !  His  arms  were  to  hold  a  wanton  one 
hour  and  me  the  next ;  his  lips  were  to  pass  from  hers 
to  mine ;  his  voice  was  to  phrase  tender  thoughts  for 
me  to-day,  for  her  to-morrow,  in  horrible  alternation. 
Or  else  he  would  neglect  me  utterly,  out-Cornelia  his 
sister  in  conjugal  carelessness,  and  make  the  world  lift 
its  eye-glass  compassionately  at  me,  with  some  touching 
comment  like  "Poor  thing!  She  might  have  known 
how  none  of  that  family  ever  do  really  marry." 

So  much  for  the  facts  whose  certainty  must  follow  my 
conviction  of  Fuller's  guilt.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  I 
should  hear  that  suspicion  had  wandered  all  too  peril- 
ously near  the  edge  of  calumny ;  that  whatever  any 
woman  on  earth  had  been  to  him  before  meeting  and 
knowing  and  loving  me,  now  no  longer  was  such  woman 
of  the  lightest  worth  in  his  thoughts  ;  that  although  he 
had  once  or  twice  given  rise  to  just  suspicion,  in  reality 
he  had  been  far  from  deserving  blame  ;  that  what  I  ? 


1 68  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

had  been  merely  the  sundering  of  ancient  ties,  too 
strengthened  by  years  for  a  single  wrench  to  break 
them — if  only  I  should  hear  all  this,  how  should  I  dare 
disbelieve,  dare  even  to  doubt  it  ?  How  could  I  blame 
him,  either,  for  having  stooped  to  a  lie  that  he  might 
spare  me  pain  ?  Ah,  to  what  a  golden  ending  of  these 
last  few  dismal  hours  my  devout  hopes  pointed  ! 

But  were  they  not  deceiving  me  ?  Fuller's  paper 
seemed  wholly  to  absorb  him.  Whither  had  flown  that 
firm  resolve  of  mine  about  making  an  effort  to  get  from 
him  the  truth  ?  I  continued  the  dumb  show  a  little 
longer,  asking  myself,  with  quickened  pulses,  why  my 
courage  had  ebbed  into-  such  shallowness  at  this,  the 
vital  moment.  Did  I  dread  hearing  the  worst  that  I 
could  hear  ?  Did  I  dread  meeting  some  caustic  rebuff 
that  would  wound  keenly  whilst  it  still  left  me  in  the 
same  dreary  state  of  doubt  ? 

Well,  I  must  speak,  anyhow.  Let  it  be  about  the 
weather,  about  the  moon,  about  Kamtchatka — I  must 
speak. 

"Did  you  like  the  play  last  night,  Fuller?"  I  was 
still  ostensibly  engaged  with  my  book. 

"  It  v/as  very  gorgeous  in  the  way  of  pageantry  and 
all  that,"  he  answered,  "but  I  can't  say  that  it  deserved 
any  great  praise." 

My  heart  gave  one  or  two  furious  beats  as  I  framed 
the  next  sentence.  "You  staid  away  for  quite  a  while. 
Indeed  I  began  to  wonder  if  you  were  ever  coming  back. 
Didn't  you  say  to  Cornelia  that  you  had  met  a  friend 
who  detained  you  ?  " 

"  Yes."  The  monosyllable  came  curt  and  cold.  A 
little  silence  followed.  Then  he  commenced  speaking 
again  in  wholly  altered  tones,  quick  and  light  and  care- 
less. "  I  told  your  mother  this  morning,  Helen,  that  I 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.    ' 

regretted  the  line  of  conduct  which  she  pursued  yester- 
day. Of  course  I  can't  answer  for  your  future  freedom 
from  her  interference.  I  believe,  though,  that  she  was 
impressed  by  what  I  said  to  her." 

I  had  lain  down  the  book  and  drawn  nearer  to  him 
by  the  time  that  my  reply  was  given.  "  Thanks,  Ful- 
ler, for  having  spoken  to  mamma.  As  for  my  desire  to 
open  your  letters,  I  trust  that  the  explanation  which  I 
gave  has  satisfied  you." 

"Explanation?"  he  questioned,  with  raised  brows. 
"  I  did  not  hear  any,  Helen — that  is,  nothing  at  all 
adequate.  However,  we  will  let  the  matter  pass,  if  you 
please." 

"  But  I  don't  please  !"  I  stormed,  crimsoning.  "The 
coolness  which  you  adopted  toward  me  last  night  was 
simply  contemptible,  after  what  I  said  in  self-defence. 
I  did  not  believe  you  capable  of  holding  ill-feeling 
against  your  wife  because  of  so  trivial  a  matter." 

He  met  me,  anger  for  anger ;  only,  his  anger  was  of 
the  curbed  smouldering  sort  ;  the  antipodes  of  my  own. 
"  What  you  choose  to  term  a  trivial  matter,  I  choose  to 
term  one  of  great  importance." 

A  laugh  left  my  lips,  bitter  and  discordant.  "Per- 
haps it  isn't  difficult  to  guess  why." 

He  fixed  hard  eyes  upon  my  face.  "  I  don't  under- 
stand you  at  all." 

"No?  I  mean,  then,  just  this:  probably  you  tjjave 
excellent  reason  not  to  let  me  into  the  secrets  of  your 
correspondence.     I  dare  you  to  tell  me  with  frankness 
from  whom  was  the  letter  which  I  handed  you  last, 
night." 

After  that  I  glared  at  him  defiantly,  in  too  much  of  a 
downright  temper  to  shrink  before  the  effect  of  my  own 
words.    -He  wore  no  guilty  flush,  now ;  he  had  only 
8 


170  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

grown  a  shade  or  two  paler  and  had  started  up  from  his 
chair. 

"  Helen,  you  know  me  well  enough  to  know  that  I 
will  not  bear  this  sort  of  thing.  I  suppose  that  when 
you  become  more  reasonable  you  will  regret  having  at- 
tempted it." 

Something  in  his  clear  firm  voice  made  me  see  the 
disadvantage  at  which  I  had  placed  myself.  Women 
generally  cry  when  any  such  revulsion  of  feeling  begins. 
I  did  not  cry — at  least  not  before  Fuller's  face.  I 
dashed  from  the  room,  rather,  so  that  he  might  not  wit- 
ness my  tears. 

Whilst  I  was  hurrying  upstairs  mamma  met  me  in 
the  second  hall.  I  knew  that  her  eyes  swept  my  face, 
and  could  not  doubt  that  she  saw  there  its  fiery  agita- 
tion. When  I  had  reached  the  door  of  my  own  room,  I 
stopped  before  entering.  Mamma  was  going  downstairs 
at  the  time  I  had  met  her :  she  would  probably  find 
Fuller  where  I  had  left  him,  in  the  little  reception-room. 

The  impulse  to  run  down  and  listen  for  a  moment  or 
two  was  not  a  particularly  high-toned  one,  I  am  ready 
to  admit.  But  I  wanted  right  eagerly  to  learn  (now 
that  my  passion,  having  shot  up  rocketwise  was  falling 
stickwise)  whether  Fuller's  frigid  impervious  manner  had 
not  been  a  kind  of  stubbornly-worn  mask,  and  would 
not  drop  from  him  the  instant  I  had  gone.  Anyhow,  I 
expended  very  few  reflections  upon  the  right  or  wrong 
of  the  matter,  but  darted  downstairs  just  in  time  to  lean 
over  the  banisters  of  the  lower  hall  stair-case  and  see 
jnamma  entering  the  reception-room. 

"  What  is  the  trouble  with  Helen  now  ?  "  I  heard  her 
ask,  in  a  voice  touched  by  surprise.  And  then,  instead 
of  the  answer  for  which  I  waited,  keenly  expectant,  came 
the  sudden  disappointing  sound  of  a  closed  door. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  made  no  attempt  aurally  to  overleap  this  obstacle, 
but  went  upstairs  again  with  a  new  feeling  of  discom- 
fort added  to  my  former  ones.  Could  it  be  possible 
that  mamma  received  confidences  from  Fuller  which 
were  withheld  from  me  ? 

An  hour  or  so  spent  in  rny  own  room  brought,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  calmness ;  and  with  calmness  reason 
generally  wralks  arm-in-arm.  Reason  rebuked  me  for 
having  shot  forth  that  sharp  little  shaft  about  the  letter. 
Such  a  shaft  should  only  have  sprung  from  the  bow  of  a 
certainty  in  Fuller's  wrong-doing.  And  I  wasn't  yet 
certain.  ' '  Not  certain,  not  certain,"  I  mentally  repeated 
many  many  times,  catching  at  my  frail  straw  of  hope. 

Of  course,  I  found  myself  arguing,  he  could  not  have 
told  me  from  whom  the  letter  had  come  after  I  had 
dared  him  to  tell  in  such  furious  fashion,  even  if  his 
tailor  or  his  boot-maker  had  been  the  real  correspond- 
ent. No  ;  I  would  not  add  wrong-  to  wrong,  in  this 
stupid  style.  "The  little  rift  within  the  lute" — pro- 
vided it  were  no  more — should  not  go  on  widening  and 
widening  with  every  hour,  when  a  few  brave  self-for- 
getful words  on  my  part  might  prevent  such  rapid  ruin. 

By  the  time  that  I  went  downstairs  to  lunch  I  had 
made  an  adamantine  resolve.  The  next  opportunity 
which  offered  itself  of  an  interview  between  Fuller  and 
me  should  prove  beyond  all  chance  of  error  how  falsely 
or  how  fairly  I  had  suspected.  I  wasn^t  a  woman  in  a 
novel,  I  told  myself,  with  a  merciless  author  to  make 
her  miserable  for  a  certain  number  of  pages  because  his 
art  imperatively  demanded  that  there  shouldn't  be  a 
reconciliation  till  the  last  chapter.  I  was  going  to  kick 
down  the  barrier  of  mutual  misunderstanding,  if  any 
such  blessed  impediment  waited  for  the  opportune  kick. 
I  was  going  to  tell  Fuller  simply  and  plainly — 


1/2  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Well,  never  mind  what.  The  dining-room  was  vacant 
when  I  entered  it,  and  continued  so  whilst  I  ate  my 
lunch.  An  inquiry  of  Henry  resulted  in  the  intelligence 
that  Mr.  Dobell  had  left  the  house  at  about  twelve 
o'clock,  and  that  Mrs.  Jeffreys  had  gone  out  in  the  car- 
riage a  little  while  afterward. 

And  so  my  lunch  was  eaten  in  solitude,  and  with  an 
atomic  appetite.  When  would  my  opportunity  come  ? 
I  asked  myself.  In  the  afternoon  or  evening  ? 

Neither  afternoon  nor  evening  brought  it.  Fuller  re- 
turned just  in  time  to  dress  for  dinner.  During  dinner 
I  found  it  hard  work  to  be  occasionally  audible  in  the 
way  of  what  are  called  general  remarks.  Without  spec- 
ially addressing  me,  Fuller  showed  a  willingness  to  do 
so.  If  it  had  not  been  for  mamma's  presence  at  table 
we  would  probably  have  answered  each  other's  common- 
places with  more  personal  directness  :  as  it  was,  we  both 
talked  mammaward. 

"  Now  my  opportunity  has  arrived,"  I  thought,  as 
Fuller,  lighting  a  cigarette,  rose  from  the  table.  After 
he  had  left  the  dining-room,  I  waited  for  perhaps  three 
minutes,  then  rose  and  followed  him.  I  had  confidently 
expected  to  find  him  smoking  in  the  reception-room. 
Instead  of  this  I  found  him  overcoated  in  the  hall,  ap- 
pearing there  just  as  the  boom  of  his  up-springing 
opera-hat  informed  me,  by  means  of  its  laconic  basso- 
profundo,  that  Jie  was  going  out. 

"Wait  a  few  moments,  Fuller,  please,"  was  on  the 
tip  of  my  tongue.  Something  kept  the  words  from  get- 
ting any  further,  however ;  perhaps  the  .fear  that  he 
would  refuse  what  I  asked  of  him.  It  was  better  not  to 
run  the  risk  of  a  refusal.  I  had  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  he  would  remain  out  all  the  evening. 

And  so  I  walked  quietly  past  him  and  went  upstairs  ; 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  ^3 

and  presently  the  hall-door  clanged  behind  his  de- 
parture. 

Well,  it  is  after  eleven  o'clock  now,  and  he  has  not 
yet  returned.  At  about  nine,  mamma  sent  for  me  to 
come  down  and  see  some  people.  I  replied  in  a  mes- 
sage to  the  effect  that  I  was  not  very  well.  My  mes- 
sage was  no  falsehood. 

I  shall  not  wait  up  any  longer ;  I  am  going  to  bed. 

And  yet,  just  a  word  more  before  I  go.  Fuller's 
treatment  of  me  at  dinner,  negative  as  it  was  in  charac- 
ter, amazed  me  for  one  reason.  There  was  no  sign  of 
anger  about  it ;  no  evidence  that  he  wished  not  to  re- 
sume terms  of  friendliness.  If  I  had  merely  flown  into 
a  passion  this  morning,  his  after-demeanor  would  not 
puzzle  me ;  but  I  had  cast  an  open  slur  upon  his  faith — 
I  had  said  that  to  him  which,  if  innocent  of  the  charge 
implied  in  my  words,  he  should  feel  bound  to  resent  as 
an  unmerited  insult.  How,  then,  can  I  account  for  his 
serene  angerless  conduct  during  dinner?  Henry's 
presence  in  the  dining-room  might  have  prevented  him 
from  keeping  frownful  silence,  but  he  would  not  have 
made  that  a  reason  for  cheerful  spirits.  Is  it  some  effect 
of  mamma's  counselling,  or  is  it  the  brazen  indifference 
of  guilt  ?  If  that  suddenly-closed  door,  this  morning, 
kept  from  me  anything  which  might  throw  one  com- 
forting ray  into  the  darkness  of  what  my  thoughts  are 
n6w,  I  bitterly  regret  not  having  been  allowed  to  play 
the  eavesdropper  as  long  as  I  wanted. 

For  Heaven  knows  I  am  in  miserable  enough  need  of 
comfort  I 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

|OV.  14. — "  It  is  a  fortunate  matter  for  Helen 
and  myself,"  mamma  was  informing  Fuller,  with 
her  grandest  manner,  as  I  appeared  at  break- 
fast, this  morning,  "  that  they  have  given  me  the  box  I 
wished ;  otherwise  I  should  have  staid  away  from  the 
opera  throughout  the  entire  season,  as  I  told  them  last 
week.  I  seriously  suspected  from  the  first,"  she  went 
on,  buttering  a  morsel  of  toast  as  though  conferring 
upon  it  a  papal  blessing,  "that  this  special  box  had 
found  no  absolute  lessee,  but  that  there  was  a  strong 
chance  of  some  operatic  potentate's  friend  deigning  to 
engage  it.  I  left  the  Academy  the  other  morning,  with 
severe  signs  of  displeasure.  '  Red-tape  '  expresses  the 
whole  matter,  I  am  quite  confident,  little  as  I  generally 
countenance  slang.  However,  the  manager  writes  me 
this  apologetic  note,"  (glancing  down  at  an  envelope 
propped  slantwise  against  the  coffee-urn)  "and  I  shall 
so  far  waive  dignity,  since  it  is  for  my  own  advantage, 
as  to  send  him  a  cheque.  Helen,  will  you  have  tea  or 
coffee  ?  " 

"Tea,  thanks."     Just  then,  Fuller,  who  had  finished 
his  breakfast,  rose  from  the  table.     Whilst  leaving  the 

o 

room  and  rolling  a  cigarette  in  languid  concert,  "  I  must 
say  you  are  sensible  in  not  missing  the  season,"  he 
observed.  "Everybody  says  that  the  opera  was  un- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  175 

commonly  nice   on    Monday  night."     Then   he   disap- 
peared. 

"  I  forgot  to  mention,  Helen,  that  opera  had  begun," 
mamma  presently  stated.  ((  But  no  doubt  you  saw  the 
advertisements,  or  somebody  told  you." 

"No  one  told  me,  and  I'm  not  an  inveterate  news- 
paper-reader, mamma,  as  you  may  have  noticed." 

Mamma  smiled  whilst  making  my  tea.  "You  say 
that  very  indifferently,  Helen.  You  used  to  delight 
in  the  opera.  But  many  of  your  tastes  seem  to  have 
changed — I  won't  say  since  your  marriage  ;  that,  of 
course,  would  cover  too  short  a  space ;  but  since 
your  engagement.  The  change  is  hardly  pleasant  to 
witness,  I  must  own.  Indeed,  it  displeases  me.  And 
before  long  it  will  probably  displease  Fuller." 

I  hesitated  for  a  moment ;  then  my  answer  came  fluent 
enough:  "You  are  quite  right.  I  am  not  fond  *of 
parade  and  pretension  any  longer  ;  and  that  is  about  all 
that  New  York  society  seems  to  consist  in,  as  far  as  I  can 
make  out  the  meaning  of  it.  Not  that  I  want  to  turn 
preacher  and  launch  philippics  against  the  morals  of  the 
day  ;  don't  suspect  me  of  anything  so  grandiose,  please. 
You  expressed  the  case  very  clearly,  mamma,  when  you 
inferred  a  change  of  tastes." 

"  And  it  is  a  most  lamentable  one,"  was  her  austere 
enunciation.  "  However,  I  refuse  to  recognize  it," 
went  forth  the  solemn  fiat.  "  If  you  have  these  feelings, 
I  must  insist  upon  their  concealment.  No  woman  of 
your  youth  and  health  and  surroundings  should  shirk  the 
responsibilities  (to  call  them  by  a  most  severe  name)  of 
her  Social  Position.  If  you  do  not  enjoy  Society,  you 
can,  at  least,  assume  a  liking  for  it.  I  suppose  you  will 
go  with  me  to  the  opera  this  evening  ?  " 

My  tea  was  made.     Mamma,  her  breakfast  concluded 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

and  some  pointed  token  of  her  noteworthy  displeasure 
being  doubtless  considered  necessary,  rose  from  her 
chair,  which  Henry,  with  courtly  obsequiousness,  drew 
back. 

"  You  know  that  I  am  very  fond  of  the  opera,"  I  ac- 
quiesced. "  Is  Fuller  going?  " 

•  "  I  really  haven't  asked  him.  He  may  go  with  us  ; 
he  may  drop  in  afterward  ;  he  may  not  go  at  all:  Fuller 
is  liable  to  all  sorts  of  engagements.  I  have  no  wish  to 
pry  into  his  affairs." 

"  Nor  should  you  have"  that  last  sentence  plainly  told 
me,  though  any  such  words  were  unspoken. 

"  Of  course  not,  mamma,"  I  made  answer,  with  much 
calmness.  "  You  are  not  his  wife." 

She  was  leaving  the  room,  but  stopped  to  reply, 
"  If  I  were  his  wife  it  would  be  the  same.  Any  other 
course,  depend  upon  it,  is  eminently  absurd."  Then 
she,  too,  disappeared. 

I  didn't  eat  much  breakfast.  Although  far  from  ex- 
pecting the  minutest  sympathy  in  this  quarter,  I  was 
not  well  prepared  for  such  an  early  disavowal  of  it. 
Whilst  drinking  my  tea  (gulping  it  down  in  hot  swal- 
lows, might  better  be  written)  I  tried  to  banish  from  my 
thoughts  the  little  that  she  had  said,  the  much  that  she 
had  meant,  and  occupy  them  wholly  with  the  coming 
interview  between  Fuller  and  myself. 

Presently  I  quitted  the  room,  passed  into  the  hall, 
drew  near  a  certain  open  doorway,  and  knew  by  the 
clouds  of  smoke  issuing  thence  that  Fuller's  presence 
would  make  such  an  interview  promptly  possible.  Pro- 
vided, tbtet  was,  mamma  had  not  joined  him  since  leav- 
ing me. 

She  had  not  joined  him.  He  had  no  society  except 
that  with  which  tobacco  and  the  morning  paper  com- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  iff 

bined  to  furnish  him,  this  duo  of  entertainers  proving  so 
fully  the  strength  in  union  that  he  was  not  a.ware  of  my 
being  at  his  side  until  I  had  stood  there  for  a  good  half- 
minute. 

As  soon  as  he  turned  and  saw  me,  I  spoke. 
"  Fuller,"  I  broke  forth,  without  proem  or  prelude,  "  I 
have  come  to  end,  if  possible,  the  bitter  feeling  that  is 
between  us.  A  few  plain  words  on  either  side  ought  to 
accomplish  this.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question — agree 
candidly  to  answer  it." 

He  flung  the  little  smoking  fragment  of  his  cigarette 
rather  adroitly  into  a  distant  cuspedor.  "  There  is  no 
bitter  feeling,  Helen,  on  my  side,  at  least.  I  advise  you 
not  to  nourish  any  :  it  certainly  won't  be  the  cleverest 
policy." 

"This  cold  and  measured  way  of  speaking,  Fuller, 
must  be  assumed  with  you,"  I  returned,  my  eyes  fixedly 
observant  of  his  face.  "  I  cannot  believe  that  you  feel 
the  indifference  you  are  showing.  Perhaps  you  want 
some  evidence  of  contrition  on  my  part  for  what  I  said 
yesterday  morning.  Understand,  then,  that  I  am  sorry, 
•and  genuinely  sorry,  for  having  spoken  as  I  did.  I 
have  no  sense  of  humiliation  in  telling  you  this.  Why 
should  you  have  any  in  explaining —  ?  " 

"  All  my 'private  personal  affairs  because  your  curios- 
ity requires  that  I  should  do  so,"  he  interrupted,  his 
voice  ringingly  hard.  "  There  is  but  one  sort  of  settle- 
ment, Helen,  that  can  ever  be  arrived  at  between  you 
and  me.  I  am  to  mind  my  own  business  and  you  are 
to  mind  yours.  That  is,  perhaps,  a  very  discourteous 
way  of  putting  it ;  but  plain  words  are  necessary,  once 
and  for  all.  I  wish  you  to  ask  no  question  of  the  sort 
you  have  hinted  at ;  I  refuse  to  answer  any  such  ques- 
tion if  you  put  it." 
8* 


178 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


He  had  been  looking  steadily  out  of  the  window  all 
this  time  ;  if  his  manner  had  not  a  grain  of  softness,  nei- 
ther had  it  a  grain  of  anger.  He  appeared  to  be  simply 
stating  his  opinion  in  bald  passionless  deliberate  terms. 
I  could  not  find  an  answer,  though  a  hundred  were 
rushing  to  my  lips.  Of  what  use  was  indignation 
against  this  marble  of  immobility  ?  Through  every 
vein  seemed  running  the  slow  icy  realization  at  what 
fearful  odds  I  waged  my  contest.  If  he  had  ever  loved 
me  that  love  was  gone  now — gone  already — gone  after 
a  few  poor  little  days  of  wedlock.  Ever  loved  me  ! 
My  thoughts  had  hardly  shaped  those  words  before  their 
desolate  mockery  became  apparent.  I  don't  exagger- 
ate one  jot  or  one  tittle  when  I  say  that  it  was  with  me, 
during  those  few  moments,  as  though  some  mocking 
devil  had  his  horrid  lips  close  against  my  ear  and  was 
sneering  that  I  had  been  fooled,  duped,  used  for  a  pass- 
ing purpose  and  thrown  aside  when  that  purpose  was 
gained.  "They  were  all  lies,"  sneered  the  devil ;  "his 
smiles,  his  suave  speeches,  his  kisses — all  lies,  lies,  lies  1 
At  Newport  he  was  a  hypocrite,  at  Pineside  he  was  an 
arch-traitor.  And  you,  you  have  been  merely  a  fool." 

Presently  I  became  conscious,  in  a  sort  of  numb 
lethargic  way,  that  Fuller  was  speaking  again.  "  And 
now,  Helen,  if  you  wish  to  remain  here  and  talk  with 
me  on  some  other  subject  I  shall  be  quite  pleased  to 
have  you  do  so.  But  any  more  useless  parleying  to 
no  purpose  whatever,  I  must  decline  to  engage  in." 

He  was  still  looking  streetward  through  the  near  win- 
dow, and  so  he  did  not  see  my  face  whilst  I  stood  there 
at  his  side  for  a  second  or  two  before  quietly  leaving  the 
room  and  quietly  going  up  to  my  own.  I  seemed  mov- 
ing in  a  dream,  then.  I  remember  seating  myself  near 
the  little  centre-table  in  my  dressing-room  and  leaning 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

my  head  on  my  hand ;  but  I  don't  believe  that  any 
thoughts  came  to  me  afterward,  though  I  sat  there  for 
quite  a  while.  No  ;  I  was  too  stunned  to  think. 
Against  the  opposite  wall  ticked  my  clock  with  sharp 
monotony  ;  outside  rumbled  the  wheels  of  omnibus  and 
coach;  "Oranges,  oranges!  fresh  Havan a  oranges!" 
appealed  a  Celtic  voice  from  below  my  windows  :  all 
these  trivial  sounds  branded  themselves  upon  my  mind, 
and  are  inseparable  from  my  remembrance  of  that 
void  sensationless  interval. 

At  length  I  must  have  reached  out  a  hand  mechani- 
cally and  drawn  toward  me  one  of  the  books  of  poems 
that  fill  my  table,  and  parted  its  pages.  It  chanced  to 
be  Christina  Rossetti's  poems — a  book  that  I  have  read 
and  re-read,  and  learned  passages  from,  and  loved 
dearly.  Possibly  the  mere  sight  of  these  familiar  well- 
prized  pages  went  far  toward  waking  me  from  my  stu- 
por. But  it  so  chanced  that  the  first  lines  my  listless 
eyes  fell  upon  were  :  — 

"It  is  over.     What  is  over  ? 
Nay,  how  much  is  over  tnily  ! " 

That  was  enough.  I  read  no  more.  I  could  not  read 
any  more.  The  rock  had  been  smitten  ;  the  living 
waters  gushed  forth.  "  Like  summer  tempest  came  my 
tears."  Down  against  the  table  fell  my  head  :  with  lips 
close  upon  those  very  lines,  with  arms  outflung  in  an 
utter  self-abandoned  recklessness  of  wretchedness,  I 
sobbed  great  heavy  sobs. 

Fuller  dined  at  home  to-night,  but  did  not  go  to  the 
opera  with  mamma  and  myself.  "  I  shall  probably 
happen  in  upon  you,"  he  told  us,  carelessly.  We  left 
him  lounging  in  the  reception-room,  with  a  novel. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

It  was  a  splendid  house,  as  far  as  attendance  went 
There  was  boxful  after  boxful  of  people  whom  we  knew. 
Mamma  bowed  here,  there,  everywhere  ;  I  followed  ex- 
ample, scattering  my  smiles  broadcast.  Nor  were  they 
smiles  that  fell  in  barren  places  ;  for  during  the  first 
entr'acte  we  were  besieged  with  devotees,  all  in  ostensible 
seventh  heavens  of  delight  at  our  appearance.  I  talked, 
I  laughed  ;  I  was  more  than  once  nearly  noisy.  The 
devotees  no  doubt  thought  me  in  glorious  spirits  ;  some 
of  them  said  so,  I  believe.  If  they  could  have  seen  the 
embittered  sickened  heart  of  their  entertainer,  how  they 
would  have  shuddered  to  their  pearl-kid  finger-tips, 
these  throngs  of  elegant  opera-going  gallants  ! 

Not  long  after  the  second  act  had  begun,  and  whilst 
Ludlow  Inmann  was  being  murmurously  conversational 
at  not  more  than  an  inch  from  one  of  my  ears,  I  chanced 
to  discover  Melville  Delano  in  a  distant  box.  Kellogg 
was  singing  a  delicious  air  deliciously,  and  I  had  been 
managing  to  appreciate  her,  notwithstanding  Mr.  In- 
mann's  close  adherence.  He  is  like  a  great  big  pot  on 
a  slew  fire  :  you  can  let  him  hum  with  impunity  whilst 
you  attend  to  something  else.  An  occasional  stir  is 
merely  optional. 

I  gave  him  such  a  stir  now.  "  I  see  that  Mr.  Delano 
is  in  the  Efrmghams'  box." 

"Yes.  He  isn't  precisely  an  enemy  of  Miss  Kate's, 
you  know.  Don't  feel  authorized,  myself,  to  say  how 
the  affair  will  turn  out.  Do  you  ?  " 

"No,  indeed  ;"  (with  a  shoulder-shrug.)  "  If  you 
see  him  this  evening,  by  the  bye,  just  give  him  a  mes- 
sage from  me.  On  the  score  of  old  friendship  I  claim  a 
morsel  of  notice,  provided  Miss  Kate  isn't  too  selfish  a 
monopolist." 

Ludlow  Inmann  made  a  very  prompt  Mercury.     At 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  jgj  . 

the  end  of  the  act  I  saw  him  in  the  Effinghams'  box  :  by 
not  many  minutes  later  Melville  was  shaking  hands  with 
me. 

I  know  that  mamma  was  amazed  ;  but  there  was  not 
in  her  manner  a  gleam  of  anything  except  cordial  cour- 
tesy. 

"  You  got  my  message  ?  "  I  opened  conversation. 

"Yes.  Inmann  told  me  what  you  said.  I  was 
doubly  astonished.  I  hadn't  yet  seen  you.  You  are 
looking  very  well." 

"  Should  that  astonish  you  ?  "  I  laughed. 

"  No.  My  other  reason  for  surprise  was  that  you 
sent  for  me." 

"  It  was  rather  bold,  Mr.  Delano.  I  should  have 
waited  for  you  to  come  of  your  own  accord.  Which 
you  would  perhaps  never  have  done." 

"Quite  right."  His  black  eyes  left  off  looking  at 
me  whilst  he  went  on  :  "I  was  not  thoroughly  sure  that 
your  invitation  had  any  serious  meaning  to-night. 
Sometimes  people  send  each  other  invitations,  you  know, 
that  are  mere  matters  of  form." 

His  innuendo  was  plain  enough  to  me  ;  he  meant  the 
note  which  I  had  sent  him  with  the  wedding-cards.  A 
keen  pang  followed  my  remembrance  of  hours  so  recent 
yet  so  unutterably  happier,  when  that  note  had  been 
written.  But  he  saw  nothing  on  my  face  of  what  I  felt. 

"  You  are  very  kind  to  bear  me  no  grudge  on  account 
of  that  little  matter,"  I  murmured,  not  caring  how  near 
to  each  other  we  had  gotten  our  respective  counten- 
ances, how  absorbed  was  my  manner,  or  how  recipro- 
cally absorbed  appeared  his.  Was  I  not  to-night  one 
of  the  same  frivolous  world  that  fanned  itself  and  bab- 
bled and  played  with  its  salts-bottle  and  devoured  the 
unwholesome  flatteries  that  were  poked  at  it,  all  about 


l%2  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

me  ?  Had  I  not  made  an  effort  to  lift  myself  from  these 
surroundings,  and  had  not  the  hand  which  might  have 
helped  me  suddenly  denied  all  help  ?  Let  me  satisfy 
Fuller  and  mamma,  and  being  still  a  dweller  in  this  little 
Rome  of  flippancy,  recklessness,  laxity,  where  fate  seems 
bent  upon  my  staying,  do  as  my  fellow  Romans  do. 
Let  me  flirt  in  simpering  contiguity  with  other  women's 
husbands,  just  as  other  women  will  probably  behave 
with  mine.  Let  New  York  say  of  us:  "  He  married 
her  for  money  ;  she  married  him  for  position  ;  and  they 
really  seem  to  have  made  a  very  friendly  exchange." 
Who  knows  but  that  Fuller  and  I  shall  one  day  possess 
the  precious  metropolitan  fame  of  giving  the  selectest 
dinners,  the  most  carefully-sifted  balls  in  Society,  and 
thrill  with  the  happy  consciousness  that  hundreds  of 
strugglers  are  elbowing  their  difficult  way  to  our  throne- 
foot  ?  Noble  ambition  !  Blissful  prospect  ! 

Just  then  the  nearness  of  Melville  Delano  had  a 
special  importance  for  me.  If  Fuller  was  coming  it 
was  time  that  he  came.  In  that  event  I  should  not  be 
wholly  weaponless  as  far  as  concerned  the  striking  of  at 
least  one  sure  blow.  Coming,  he  would  find  Melville 
at  my  side. 

He  did  appear,  presently.  I  saw  him  at  quite  a  dis- 
tance off,  advancing  loiteringly  toward  our  box,  stop- 
ping a  second  here,  a  second  there,  all  smiles  and  bows 
and  affability.  I  saw  him,  and  then  a  fierce  sort  of 
boldness  seized  me,  and  before  I  knew  it  Melville  was 
asking  for  a  rosebud  out  of  my  bouquet  and  I  was  smil- 
ingly telling  him  that  Kate  Effingham  would  never  for- 
give me  if  I  granted  such  a  favor. 

"  Is  her  pardon  of  so  much  importance  to  you  ?  "  he 
whispered.  "  I  am  sure  it  isn't  to  me." 

"  Then  what  people  say  is  all  wrong  ?  "  I  made  mur- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

murous  answer,  disengaging  from  its  pale-pink  sister- 
hood one  of  my  freshest  rosebuds. 

By  this  time  Fuller  had  reached  our  box.  He  had 
nearly  entered  it  before  he  recognized  Melville.  There 
.was  no  sign  of  greeting  between  the  two  men.  Fuller 
drew  back  in  abrupt  style,  his  brows  momentarily  knit, 
thrown  off  his  guard  by  the  suddenness  of  the  encoun- 
ter. Melville  shot  one  sidelong  look  at  the  new-comer, 
discovered  in  that  look  who  he  was,  and  went  on  talk- 
ing, a  trifle  confusedly,  to  me.  As  for  myself, 

"  Have  you  just  arrived  ?  "  I  questioned,  with  beam- 
ing composure. 

"  Yes,"  he  returned,  shortly,  ignoring  me  for  the> 
little  group  of  men  that  were  surrounding  mamma. 

"  Had  I  not  better  leave  you  ?  "  Melville  confiden- 
tially wanted  to  know,  whilst  fastening  in  his  button- 
hole the  rosebud  I  had  just  given  him. 

"  And  pray  why  ?  " 

His  eyes  made  quick  eager  search  of  my  face.  I  am 
sure  that  they  found  there  only  placid  pleasant  encour- 
agement. "Because,"  he  hesitated,  "because — but 
pshaw,  you  know  perfectly  well." 

"  Know  ?  "  with  raised  brows  I  responded.  "  You're 
wrong  ;  I  don't  at  all  know." 

"  Somebody  is  looking  terribly  cross.  I  should  say 
that  a  coming  curtain-lecture  was  casting  its  shadow 
before. 

"  Then  you're  a  very  stupid  prophet,"  I  laughed. 
After  that  I  cleared  the  subject  with  a  flying  leap,  as  it 
were,  and  landed  upon  something  widely  different. 
Another  act  began.  Melville  remained  at  my  side. 
The  group  of  men  about  mamma  lessened  by  several 
members.  Fuller  was  among  the  departures.  Presently 
I  saw  him  in  close  converse  with  that  little  yellow- 


!84  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

haired  Gerald  woman,  who  smiles  so  much  and  whilst 
she  does  it  shows  you  such  very  white  teeth  and  such 
very  red  gums. 

It  was  about  now  that  I  began  to  observe  in  mamma 
pronounced  signs  of  annoyance  ;  I  should  say  uneasi- 
ness, but  the  word  hasn't  enough  dignity.  Evidently 
she  considered  that  Melville  was  outstaying  the  conven- 
tional time — that  is,  for  Melville.  Evidently,  too,  she 
disapproved  of  my  exclusive  and  concentrated  civility. 
More  than  once  a  kind  of  extra  sense  told  me  that  her 
eyes  were  scanning  us.  I  affected  entire  unconscious- 
ness. In  reality  I  only  grew  more  determined  that  Mel- 
ville should  not  leave  me. 

Nor  did  he,  until  the  opera  was  over.  Fuller  at 
length  quitted  his  yellow-haired  charmer,  and  went 
among  fresh  boxes  and  entertainers  new.  When  the 
green  curtain  fell  on  the  melodious  misery  of  tenor  and 
soprano  he  had  not  returned. 

"  Mr.  Delarro  is  going  to  get  us  our  carriage,"  I  coolly 
told  mamma,  as  we  rose. 

'  Which  Melville  did.  I  bade  him  good-night  with 
just  enough  warmth  not  to  make  my  cordiality  seem 
over-done.  Mamma  gave  him  no  hand,  but  smiled 
courteous  farewell.  And  as  the  carriage  rolled  us  away 
from  the  Academy,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  Fuller  coming 
down  the  steps  with  a  white-cloaked  companion  on  his 
arm. 

Would  mamma  attack  me,  I  wondered,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  my  civilities  to  Melville  ?  But  though  I  steadied 
myself  to  meet  such  an  attack,  none  came.  We  had 
not  been  home  ten  minutes  before  Fuller  arrived  there. 
I  had  thrown  myself  into  a  great  chair  in  the  reception- 
room,  and  had  just  told  myself  languidly  for  the  fourth 
or  fifth  time  that  I  had  better  ring  for  Blanche.  Fuller 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


18.5 


entered  the  house  with  his  latch-key,  and  came  imme- 
diately into  the  reception-room.  I  supposed  mamma 
had  gone  upstairs  ;  anyhow,  she  was  no  longer  visible. 

The  instant  that  my  eyes  met  his  face  I  knew  what 
was  coming.  He  planted  himself  directly  in  front  ot 
me,  staring  hard  ;  not  scowling,  not  showing  any  sign 
of  concealed  passion. 

"  I  don't  know  why  you  acted  as  you  did  to-night," 
he  presently  began,  "  unless  it  was  solely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  causing  me  annoyance.  Don't  affect  that  look 
of  surprise,  please.  You  know  very  well  what  I  mean." 

"  Do  I  ?  "  (O  bitter  masquerade  !  my  forehead  was 
creased  in  one  or  two  puzzled  lines  ;  my  lips  were  just 
bent,  and  no  more,  in  the  least  downward  contemptu- 
ous curve.)  "  Please  excuse  the  stupidity,  but  I  really 
don't  know." 

This  was  the  way  to  meet  him  on  his  own  ground, 
marble  for  marble,  ice  for  ice  ;  this  way  and  this  only. 
It  had  been  widely  different  when  I  had  believed  that 
some  love-warmth  slept  beneath  his  coldness ;  now, 
when  I  knew  that  he  cared  nothing  for  me,  that  he  was 
all  coated  irt  the  dense  mail  of  indifference,  that  I  could 
merely  wound  him  through  his  arrogant  self-love  or 
vanity — now  the  fight  must  be  fought  with  merely  a  de- 
sire to  deal  such  wounds  and  nothing  more. 

Evidently  my  unlooked-for  coolness  ruffled  him, 
threw  him  off  his  guard.  "  If  you  don't  know,"  he 
stated,  with  a  touch  of  roughness,  "  then  suppose  you 
learn.  I  mean  that  you  are  not  justified  in  receiving 
the  attentions  of  a  man  whose  acquaintance  I  do  not 
recognize — Melville  Delano.  In  future  I  insist  that  you 
shall  give  him  reason  to  understand — even  if  you  fail  to 
cut  him  outright — that  his  society  is  not  desired." 

I  rose,  at  this,  gathered  from  the  chair  my  fallen  opera- 


!86  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

cloak,  and  threw  it  over  my  arm  as  though  I  was  a  little 
afraid  of  wrinkling  it  by  the  operation.  Then  I  spoke, 
with  much  easy  quietude  of  manner.  "You  seem  to 
make  rules,  I  must  venture  to  observe,  only  for  the 
purpose  of  breaking  them.  Not  many  hours  ago  I  was 
to  mind  my  own  business  (though  I  believe  you  did  me 
the  favor  to  add  that  this  was  a  rather  discourteous  way 
of  putting  it)  and  you  were  to  mind  yours." 

He  measured  me  quickly  from  head  to  foot ;  he 
gnawed  his  lip  nervously  once  or  twice  ;  he  looked 
down  at  his  oval  magnitude^of  flawless  shirt  bosom  ;  he 
reinstated  a  spray  of  lilies-of-the-valley  that  was  about 
precipitating  itself  from  his  button-hole  ;  he  was  plainly 
taken  aback,  amazed,  shot  at  from  a  battery  that,  a  mo- 
ment or  two  ago,  had  seemed  quite  incapable  of  opening 
fire. 

"  I  said  that,  Helen,  and  meant  it.  I  mean  it  still. 
But  this  is  wholly  an  outside  matter.  You  may  know 
whom  you  please,  provided  you  know  respectable  peo- 
ple ;  but—" 

I  stopped  him  there.  Not  with  any  hastily  passion- 
ate sentence,  not  with  irate  eyes,  not  with  any  indig- 
nant demeanor.  I  only  laughed  a  trenchant  caustic 
mocking  laugh. 

"  Respectable  people,  Fuller  ?  Do  I  hear  you  quite 
correctly  ?  And  is  that  condition  to  be  mutually  im- 
posed ?  " 

He  grew  paler  by  a  shade  or  two  and  looked  angry 
enough  to  strike  me.  For  a  little  while  at  least  I  was 
mamma's  daughter.  My  head  was  high-held  ;  my  pose 
was  august ;  my  stare  met  his  with  austerest  dignity. 

"  Come,"  I  at  length  went  on,  after  placidly  watching 
his  answerless  discomfiture,  "  suppose  I  undertake  to 
canvass  your  conduct  this  evening,  since  you  have  seen 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

fit  to  adopt  a  like  course  as  regards  mine.  I  noticed  that 
you  spent  quite  a  while  in  Mrs.  Gerald's  box ;  that  fast 
little  lady  with  the  yellow  hair  whom  neither  mamma 
nor  I  are.  willing  to  know.  Not  that  we  have  quarreled 
with  her,  understand  ;  not  that  we  have  taken  any  un- 
reasonable prejudice  against  her  ;  not  that  she  has  ever 
caught  either  of  us  in  a  breach  of  propriety  ;  not  that —  " 

"  Stop,  Helen  !  You  are  going  too  far."  He 
growled  out  the  words  with  savage  force,  and  came  a 
step  closer  to  where  I  was  standing. 

But  I  held  my  ground  with  calm  hardihood.  '  After 
all,'  shot  through  my  mind,  '  it  would  not  matter  much 
even  if  he  should  strike  me.'  So  many  of  the  idols  in 
my  temple  have  been  tumbled  over  :  what  matter  if  the 
iconoclast  shall  assault  another  ? 

•"  You  see  my  meaning,  Fuller?  I  am  glad  of  it." 
I  gave  a  gentle  laugh.  "  Quick  perception  and  a  guilty 
conscience  go  together  very  often."  And  now  I  glided 
past  him,  moving  composedly  doorward.  "  Regarding 
this  question  of  my  letting  Melville  Delano  talk  to  me 
as  long  as  he  likes  and  as  long  as  I  like,  you  must  really 
permit  me  to  exercise  my  own  choice.  He  is  an  old 
friend  and  a  sincere.  Sincerity  is  such  a  supremely 
rare  virtue,  remember,  in  this  world  where  such  gross 
deceptions  are  practised  every  day." 

By  this  time  I  had  reached  the  hall ;  and  whilst  my 
foot  was  touching  the  first  step  of  the  staircase,  I  turned 
to  see  him  standing  on  the  opposite  threshold  of  the 
reception-room,  angrily  handsome,  a  slight  flush  replac- 
ing his  past  pallor,  his  blond  head  back-thrown. 

"Explain  your  meaning,"  he  demanded,  "about 
gross  deceptions." 

"  I  would  rather  not,"  with  keen-pealing  voice,  with 
unwavering  eyes,  I  made  answer.  "  It  would  merely 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

be  what  you  yourself  have  already  named  useless  par- 
leying to  no  purpose." 

I  ascended  three  or  four  steps.  He  thrust  both  hands 
pocketward,  half  turned  his  back  upon  me,  as  though 
re-entering  the  room,  then  abruptly  changed  his  mind 
and  faced  me  again. 

"  You  are  right.  I  believe  as  little  as  you  do  in  the 
wasting  of  words.  I  shall  not  waste  them  now.  I  in- 
sist upon  your  discountenancing  all  marked  attentions 
from  Melville  Delano." 

I  bit  my  lip  a  second,  to  subordinate  the  devil  that 
wanted  to  possess  himself  of  my  voice  and  hurl  forth 
fiery  language  therewith.  Then  I  spoke,  measuredly, 
deliberately. 

"  Make  yourself  worthy  of  issuing  such  commands 
and  they  may  perhaps  be  obeyed."  After  that  I  went 
upstairs. 

And  so  it  has  become  war  to  the  teeth — war  flinch- 
less  and  uncompromising  on  both  sides.  I  am  glad  of 
it. 

Glad!  Ah,  *  miserably  misused  word!  I  shall  be 
glad  of  nothing  any  more.  How  much  better  if  I  had 
died  of  some  swift  sickness  at  Pineside,  this  autumn, 
believing  that  he  loved  me  !  And  yet,  no  ;  for  in  that 
case  my  soul  might  have  had  eyes  to  look  down  into 
his  soul  where  I  had  left  him,  seeing  all  its  black 
shameful  fraud.  And  then  Heaven  would  have  turned 
horrible  to  me,  since  there  would  not  be  any  waiting  for 
him,  any  hope  that  he  would  one  day  join  me  there 
in  divinest  re-union.  No  ;  better  if  I  had  passed  away 
then  into  utter  nothingness  ;  stiffened,  crumbled,  rotted 
and  not  known  it.  I  should  have  had  my  day  ;  should 
have  cheated  fate  of  its  power  to  torture  me  like  this  ; 
should  slumber  blankly,  voidly,  pulselessly,  and  dream 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


I89 


never  a  dream  of  how  he  had  not  shed  a  tear  over 
my  dumb  inert  body. 

These  are  wild  words.  I  am  in  a  wild  terrible  mood. 
If  there  was  only  hope  that  I  have  judged  him  with  too 
great  haste — that  he  has  not,  after  all,  flung  in  my  face 
this  enormous  insult,  this  cruel  awful  jeer  !  But  there 
is  no  such  hope. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

1OV.  15. — We  have  met  each  other  again  ;  we 
have  spoken  ;  we  have  even  been  polite  to  each 
other.  Evidently  he  has  decided  (with  laudable 
magnanimity)  to  overlook  my  bad  behavior.  Perhaps 
he  thinks  I  am  going  to  yield  ultimately,  after  a  little 
rebellious  sputter,  in  this  affair  about  Melville  Delano. 
Perhaps  mamma  has  been  counselling  him  as  to  what 
is  the  most  "  advisable  "  policy.  She  may  indeed  have 
promised  him  her  full  co-operation  whenever  it  shall  be 
needed.  I  grow  sick  at  heart,  ragefully  and  frenziedly 
sick,  when  I  think  of  this.  .  .  . 

Nov.  16. — "  Any  admittance  ?  "  appealed  a  feminine 
voice  at  my  door,  this  morning,  a  little  while  after 
lunch. 

I  rose  and  let  in  Cornelia. 

"  My  dear,"  (giving  me  a  sort  of  pouncing  salute  on 
each  cheek)  "  why  are  you  moping  here  so  ridiculously 
this  divine  day  ?  " 

"  Is  it  divine  ?  "  I  wanted  to  know. 

"  The  heavenliest  kind  of  Indian  summer.  One  feels 
as  if  one  ought  to  go  about  in  beads  and  feathers  and 
things — like  a  squaw,  you  know — just  to  be  in  accord 
with  the  season.  How  do  you  like  my  new  suit  ? 
Fresh  from  Worth's  yesterday." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


191 


I  admired,  conventionally. 

"  And  my  bonnet  ?  "  she  progressed,  planting  herself 
where  the  light  was  strongest  and  revolving  slowly,  like 
the  automatic  wax-work  that  sometimes  lures  passers- 
by  in  hair-dressers'  windows.  "  Was  there  ever  such 
an  odd  shape  ?  I  met  Mrs.  Georgie  Buckland  and  she 
giggled  in  my  face.  What  will  Virot  make  us  wear 
next?"  Then  Mrs.  Walters  took  a  seat,  showing  the 
most  gingerly  solicitude  about  tumbling  her  vestments. 
"  I  heard  of  you  at  the  opera  last  night." 

"  Yes  ?     From  whom,  Cornelia  ?  " 

"  Summerby  told  me  you  were  there — that  is  I  believe 
it  was  Summerby.  He  didn't  say  whether  he  talked  to 
you  or  not."  (Looking  unconcernedly  away  from  me,  and 
looking  also  as  though  Summerby  would  have  received 
the  most  gracious  reverse  of  frigid  treatment  if  he 
had  really  come.)  "  Anyhow,  I  heard  that  Melville 
Delano  monopolized  you  most  of  the  evening." 

How  the  words  jarred  upon  me  !  How,  a  few  days 
ago,  I  would  have  haughtily  resented  them  !  What 
could  I  do  now  ?  What  but  smile  and  murmur  "  Ah  ? 
Yes  ?"  in  bland  acknowledgment  ? 

"An  early  beginning,  Helen — a  scandalously  early 
beginning,"  denounced  Cornelia,  trying  to  make  her  red 
laughtcrfiil  mouth  mock-solemn.  "  However,"  (break- 
ing into  most  audible  mirth,  right  here)  "one  knows 
one's  own  affairs  far  better  than  anybody  can  counsel 
one.  For  my  part,  I'm  rather  pleasantly  disappointed 
in  you.  I  was  ready,  somehow,  to  see  you  commence 
all  manners  of  strait-laced  pf\ideries.  And  it  would 
have  been  such  sheer  stupidity,  if  you  don't  mind  my 
telling  you  so,  with  a  man  like  Fuller." 

Whatever  may  be  my  faults,  Diary,  I  don't  think 
that  I  deserve  to  be  called  a  termagant ;  and  yet  it 


192 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


is  the  truth  that  just  now  my  right  hand  was  itch- 
ing to  make  a  scarlet  print  of  its  breadth  and  length  on 
that  nice  delicate  cheek  of  Cornelia's.  The  desire, 
let  it  be  recorded  out  of  common  compliment  to  my 
self-respect,  would  not  have  reached  consummation 
even  if  no  knock  had  sounded  at  the  door  and  I  was  not 
obliged  to  call  out  the  conventional  "  come  in." 

o 

Whereupon  I  was  amazed  by  the  appearance  of  Fuller. 

He  kissed  Cornelia  and  then  turned  toward  me. 
"  It's  such  a  fine  day,  Helen,  that  I  thought  you  might 
care  to  take  a  drive.  Do  you  ?  " 

I  felt  myself  turn  tomato-color  under  his  calm  eyes. 
I  don't  know  what  I  should  have  done  if  Cornelia  had 
not  been  in  the  room.  Perhaps  I  should  have  started 
up  from  my  chair  and  burst  forth  "  Oh,  Fuller,  do  you 
really  want  me  to  go  ?  "  emotionally,  passionately.  As 
it  was,  I  managed  something  like  a  decent  acquiescence, 
too  dashed  to  do  more  than  just  save  myself  from  a  pit- 
fall of  stammering  confusion. 

"  Upon  my  word,"  pouted  Cornelia,  "  your  incivility, 
Fuller,  is  quite  brazen.  I  suppose  you  mean  to  go  out 
in  that  two-seated  arrangement  that  Louis  says  you've 
lately  bought.  But  I  deserve  some  slight  vestige  of  an 
invitation,  nevertheless,  considering  that  I'm  present 
and  not  stone-deaf.  I've  a  good  mind  to  express  per- 
fect willingness  in  the  matter  of  perching  myself  on  the 
coachman's  seat  behind  you  and  Helen.  You  ought  to 
be  obliged  to  cart  me  along  with  you  in  some  such  style, 
as  a  punishment  for  bad  manners." 

"  Pray  come,"  laughed  Fuller.  "  If  Helen  has  no 
objection  I  have  none." 

By  this  time  I  had  made  at  least  reputable  patchwork 
of  my  tattered  self-possession.  "  When  shall  we  start, 
Fuller  ?  "  I  asked. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


193 


"  Shall  we  say  at  three  o'clock  ?  "  he  suggested,  tak- 
ing out  his  watch.  "It  is  nearly  two  now.  John  is 
waiting  for  the  order." 

"  Very  well,"  I  agreed — "  three  o'clock." 

Fuller  left  the  room,  presently,  and  I  did  not  see  him 
again  untill  just  before  we  started  on  our  drive.  Wild 
thoughts  had  been  at  work  in  my  brain  whilst  I  was 
dressing,  watched  with  languid  interest  by  Cornelia.  I 
turn  back  now,  Diary,  to  some  words  which  I  wrote  in 
you  at  the  end  of  yesterday's  record  :  If  there  was  only 
one  hope  that  I  had  judged  him  with  too  great  haste. 
Could  it  be  that  I  had  really  so  judged  him  ?  "  O  my 
God,"  I  thought,  "  is  this  man's  feeling  for  me  not 
wholly  the  loveless  void  I  believed  it  ?  Does  he  regret 
what  has  passed  ?  does  he  wish  to  re-establish  those 
sweet  terms  of  happy  harmony  ?  does  he  truly  care, 
after  all— ?" 

"  What  a  perfect-fitting  corset  you  have  on,  Helen," 
criticised  Cornelia,  ignorant  of  the  dreadful  irrelevancy. 
"It  looks  as  if  some  Frenchwoman  had  muttered  a 
spell  and  there  it  was." 

Blanche,  who  was  assisting  at  my  toilette,  gave  this 
compliment  more  of  a  smiling  reception,  I  am  afraid, 
than  her  mistress  did.  "Perhaps,"  my  thoughts  went 
on,  taking  a  gloomier  turn,  "  Fuller  has  merely  meant 
his  invitation  to  ride  as  a  counter-blow  against  my  stony 
indifference.  If  so  he  has  indeed  meant  it,  I  must  use 
wary  eyes  in  keeping  clear  of  the  snare  thus  set  for  me. 
If  he  wants  to  show  me  that  he  can  forget  to-morrow  the 
wound  dealt  yesterday,  that  he  cares  to  have  the  world 
see  us  on  apparently  amicable  terms,  that  he  shall  main- 
tain the  outward  form  of  marital  civility  and  ignore  any 
*  displeasure  on  my  part  as  he  would  ignore  the  displeas- 
ure of  a  petulant  child  ;  then — ." 
9 


194 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


"  Your  collar-bones  don't  show  a  bit,  Helen,"  de- 
cided Cornelia.  "I  wish  mine  didn't,  but  somehow 
they  have  ever  since  Archibald  was  born.  I  suppose  I 
shall  have  to  wear  the  most  ponderous  neck-gear  with  all 
my  low  dresses,  this  winter.  It  is  so  trying  !  " 

Ah,  me  !  one's  collar-bones  haven't  much  reason  to 
show,  as  I  mentally  answered  Cornelia,  when  one  has 
fed  upon  the  nutritious  diet  of  intense  happiness.  No 
doubt  my  own  emaciating  period  (something  a  trifle 
wofuller  than  the  birth  of  an  Archibald)  is  among  the 
very  near  probabilities. 

At  three  o'clock  I  was  ready ;  at  three  o'clock  we 
started.  There  was  no  necessity  for  any  remark  on  my 
side  until  we  had  gotten  quite  a  little  distance  up  the 
avenue ;  for  each  of  the  polished  bays  Fuller  was  driv- 
ing seemed  bent  on  doing  its  restive  best  to  occupy 
his  full  attention.  •  Presently  they  went  along  more 
tractably ;  whe*reupon  I  eulogised  the  day  with  a  little 
moderate  enthusiasm.  Fuller  agreed  that  the  day  was 
a  delicious  day.  Then  silence  again. 

After  that  I  cast  a  sheep's-eye  toward  John,  making 
myself  momentarily  conscious  of  more  or  less  shirt-collar, 
the  rather  roseate  nape  of  a  neck  and  a  segment  of  hat-rim. 
The  collar,  the  neck  and  the  hat-rim  were  a  trifle  further 
away  than  I  had  thought  them.  John  might  not  be 
sharp-eared  ;  there  was  a  steady  clatter  of  passing 
wheels  ;  I  was  going  to  run  the  risk  of  having  John  hear 
what  I  should  next  say. 

"  Your  asking  me  to  ride  surprised  me  a  good  deal, 
Fuller." 

"Yes?"  whilst  he  bowed  to  somebody  in  the  Gor- 
dons' window.  "  Did  you  expect  I  was  going  to  ask 
Cornelia?  " 

"  Not  that.     Your  earnest  request  might  be  taken, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  ig$ 

you  know,  in  two  or  three  ways."  I  spoke  with  entire 
placidity.  "  It  might  have  meant  that  I  hadn't  it  in  my 
power  to  offend  you  for  any  length  of  time,  because  what 
I  thought  or  said  was  quite  unimportant  to  you  ;  or  it 
might  have  meant  the  precise  reverse  of  this,  as  regarded 
my  opinions  and  words."  Here  my  voice  quivered  a 
little  under  the  stress  of  pure  unmanageable  feeling. 
"  Recollect  that  mine  isn't  a  hard  grudge-bearing  nature. 
If  you  care  to  win  back  whatever  is — is  lost,  Fuller, 
you  must  see  that  the  means  of  doing  so  are  not 
difficult." 

I  waited  for  his  answer,  looking  straight  before  me  at 
a  little  glittering  swinging  ring  over  one  of  the  bay's 
sheeny  backs.  Presently  Fuller  spoke. 

"John," 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Charlie  goes  better,  I  think,  on  the  off  side;  and 
next  time  remember  to  give  him  a  little  looser  breech- 
ing, by  the  way." 

"Yes,  sir." 

Silence.  I  had  gotten  my  answer.  I  knew  now  why 
he  had  taken  me  to  drive.  It  was  better  that  the  dis- 
covery should  have  been  rapidly  made.  I  had  hoped 
against  hope;  my  folly  had  found  swift  cure. 

After  a  little  while  I  talked  commonplaces.  Fuller 
gave  glib  and  prompt  enough  replies  ;  he  even  volun- 
teered subjects  more  than  once.  At  length  the  Park 
was  reached  and  the  bays  were  made  to  quicken  pace. 

"The  horse  on  my  side,"  I  presently  .commented, 
"  seems  to  be  on  the  look  out  for  something  to  get 
frightened  at." 

Fuller  laughed,  rather  acquiescingly.  Just  at  this 
time  there  was  a  close  carriage  right  in  front  of  us — a 
bulkily  respectable-looking  affair  that  might  have  borne 


I96  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

some  such  occupant  as  a  fleshy  dowager  with  more  than 
one  chin  and  a  pedigree  which  had  ramified  itself  straight 
from  the  central  root  of  Knickerbockerism.  We  were  on 
the  verge  of  passing  this  carriage  when  I  was  suddenly 
conscious  of  a  violent  sidelong  lurch.  Something  (I 
have  no  idea  what)  had  supplied  the  horse  of  which  I 
had  just  spoken  with  his  desired  excuse  for  rank  rebel- 
lion. 

But  the  sidelong  lurch  did  not  end  matters.  A  grat- 
ing crushing  sound  instantly  followed,  and  there  was 
one  of  our  wheels  locked  in  ruinous  junction  with  a 
wheel  of  the  contiguous  carriage.  One  of  our  horses 
reared  horribly  ;  the  other  made  a  short  furious  bolt 
forward.  I  suppose  Fuller's  fine  driving  saved  at  least 
a  single  life — Fuller's  fine  driving  and  John's  quick 
presence  of  mind  added  to  this.  For  whilst  I  was  on 
the  point  of  perpetrating  a  most  plaintive  sort  of  shriek, 
our  condition  looked  suddenly  much  less  perilous,  be- 
cause of  John  having  sprung  out  and  darted  to  the 
horses'  heads. 

Somebody  did  shriek,  however,  and  with  decided 
shrillness.  The  voice  came  from  the  carriage  at  our 
side.  A  woman's  face,  white  with  alarm,  was  thrust 
forth  from  its  open  window.  I  recognized  the  face  as 
one  familiar  to  me,  but  that  was  all,  just  then.  Not 
until  I  had  contrived  to  scramble  down  to  firm  earth 
with  what  mingled  speed  and  dexterity  terror  gave  me, 
did  any  realization  of  whose  the  face  had  been  enter  into 
my  consciousness. 

It  was  her  face  ;  that  woman's — Fuller's — no,  I  won't 
write  the  word.  "  Oh,  help  !  help  !  "  she  was  shouting. 
"  Let  me  get  out !  I  shall  be  killed  !  Help  !  help  !  " 

She  had  reason  for  terror  ;  the  horses  of  her  carriage 
were  plunging  frantically.  I  had  stationed  myself  at 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


197 


one  side  of  the  road,  out  of  the  way  of  all  passing  ve- 
hicles. In  a  moment  more  the  wheels  were  unlocked 
and  both  pairs  of  horses  were  considerably  quieted  ; 
but  still  that  voice  kept  on  calling  for  help.  What 
people  name  common  humanity,  I  suppose,  prompted 
me  to  advance,  now,  toward  the  door  of  her  carriage 
and  open  it. 

"  There  is  no  danger,"  I  stated,  looking  anywhere 
except  at  her  face.  "You  are  perfectly  safe."  Then 
I  drew  back,  leaving  the  carriage-door  still  open. 

Out  she  rushed,  immediately  afterward.  Just  then  I 
glanced  toward  Fuller.  He  had  quitted  his  seat  and 
was  coming  in  our  direction,  leaving  John  at  the  horses' 
heads. 

It  is  my  belief  that  she  had  not  recognized  me  when 
I  spoke  to  her  through  the  carriage-door.  She  was 
then  in  a  wildly  frightened  state  ;  my  veil  was  down  ; 
my  voice  she  had  never  heard.  I  believe  also  that  the 
first  real  sense  of  her  real  situation  dated  from  her  re- 
cognition of  Fuller. 

He  was  only  a  few  yards  distant  when  she  sprang 
toward  him  with  thrust-out  arms,  her  alarmed  eyes  blaz- 
ing from  her  dead-white  exquisite  face. 

"  Oh,  is  it  truly  you  ?  Where  have  you  come  from  ? 
How  did  you  get  here  ?  I  expected  every  instant  to 
be  killed  ;  "  hurrying  forth  her  sentences  in  maddest 
pell-mell,  with  a  hand  on  each  of  his  shoulders. 

He  bent  his  head  so  that  his  lips  nearly  met  her  fore- 
head. What  he  answered  was  very  low  ;  but  I  heard  it. 

"  Edith,  for  God's  sake  don't  make  such  an  infernal 
noise.  Don't  you  see  how  I  am  placed  ?  " 

With  that  the  blood  leapt  up  scaldingly  to  my  cheeks. 
I  stood  like  a  statue,  scrutinizing  the  pair.  Fuller  went 
on  speaking.  He  whispered,  now  ;  I  could  not  catch 


198  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

a  word  more.  Presently  he  left  off  addressing  her  and 
took  a  step  in  my  direction,  laying  a  hand  on  each  of 
her  hands  as  if  to  displace  them  from  their  hold.  But 
she  clung  harder,  as  a  scared  child  might  cling,  at  the 
same  time  giving  her  nobly-poised  head  a  quick  turn 
and  sending  me  across  her  shoulder  one  fixed  angry 
shameless,  contumelious  stare. 

I  felt  every  fibre  of  my  body  quiver,  then.  I  can't 
remember  much  else  until  I  had  gotten  to  John's  side. 
"  John,"  I  was  questioning,  "  is  ourwagon  badly  hurt  ?  " 

"  It  ain't  hurt  at  all,  ma'am.  You  see,  ma'am,  the 
wheel  was  so  heavy  and  strong.  But  the  other  car- 
riage—" 

"  Never  mind  the  other  carriage."  Before  my  next 
sentence  was  framed  I  had  begun  to  ascend  into  our 
own.  "  I  want  you  to  get  immediately  in  here  with 
me,  John,  and  drive  me  home." 

"Mr.  Dobell,  ma'am—?" 

"  Leave  Mr.  Dobell  where  he  is."  I  was  seated,  now. 
"  You  hear  me.  Do  at  once  as  I  tell  you." 

John  obeyed.  Two  carriages  had  stopped  near  us, 
the  occupants  of  each  keenly  observant  of  the  accident. 
One  was  a  dog-cart ;  Ludlow  Inmann  was  driving  it, 
Belle  Dillinger  sat  by  his  side.  I  saw  them  both  bow 
whilst  John  was  turning  the  horses  homeward.  '  This 
will  be  town-talk  to-morrow,'  sped  through  my  mind, 
as  I  bent  my  head  in  answer. 

"  Make  them  go  fast,"  I  commanded,  sharply,  the 
instant  the  turn  was  effected.  Poor  John  !  he  looked 
frightened  out  of  every  wit,  and  was  on  the  point  of  ex- 
ecuting the  order,  when 

"  Where  are  you  going  ?  "  called  out  a  voice  directly 
in  our  rear. 

Fuller's  voice.     The  next  instant  he  was  at  my  side. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  caught  the  whip  from  its  place  before  I  spoke.  Then 
I  levelled  most  savage  eyes  upon  him,  leaned  down  as 
far  as  the  high  seat  would  let  me  and  flung  at  him  these 
words,  fiercely  whispering  them  in  a  voice  clogged  with 
passion  : 

"  I  am  going  home  without  you.  I  am  going  to  leave 
you  with  your  mistress." 

And  almost  whilst  that  last  hateful  word  was  leaving 
my  lips  I  laid  one  cutting  blow  across  the  back  of  the 
horse  nearest  me.  The  effect  was  like  flame  touching 
powder.  We  had  left  the  place  of  the  accident  a  good 
distance  behind  us  when  John  had  the  startled  team  well 
in  hand  again.  For  my  own  part,  I  relished  the  rush- 
ing speed  that  had  followed  my  blow.  I  should  not 
have  cared  if  those  horses  had  dashed  me  to  destruction. 
We  were  being  trotted  peaceably  out  of  the  Park  when 
I  turned  to  John  : 

"  Drive  home  by  the  Sixth  Avenue  way." 

"Yes,  ma'am." 

It  was  dusk  when  we  finally  turned  into  Fifth  Avenue 
again.  I  question  whether  anybody  for  whose  observa- 
tion I  cared  saw  me  then.  I  had  just  entered  the  house 
when  mamma  met  me  in  the  hall.  "  Aren't  you  home 
rather  earlier  than  you  expected  to  be  ?"  she  wanted  to 
know.  "  By  the  bye,  where  is  Fuller?" 

I  was  pulling  off  my  gloves  as  though  they  were 
poisoning  my  hands.  "  Mamma,  I  must  speak  with 
you  about  something.  Will  you  come  upstairs  into  my 
room,  please  ?  " 

I  hurried  up,  after  that,  never  pausing  to  see  if  she 
would  follow  me.  Once  inside  the  room,  I  flung  myself 
into  a  chair,  discovered  that  it  was  a  rocking-chair  and 
rocked  it  exaggeratedly,  waiting  for  her.  Presently  I 
heard  her  dress  rustle  in  the  outer  hall. 


200  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Her  face  had  a  peering  puzzled  look,  as  she  came 
and  stood  beside  me  in  the  softened  light. 

I  broke  silence  at  once,  rattling  off  precisely  what 
had  happened,  and  never  stopping  an  instant  until  I 
had  finished  the  story.  "  Perhaps  my  behavior  was 
stupid,  all  things  considered,"  I  made  end.  "  A  woman 
of  the  world  would  have  behaved  differently,  I  suppose. 
But  I  am  not  a  woman  of  the  world  ;  I'm  an  insulted, 
outraged  wife.  Please  remember  this,  before  you  tell 
me  what  you  think  of  the  occurrence." 

I  was  scanning  her  face  in  search  for  some  sign  of  sym- 
pathy, or  sympathy's  opposite.  One  might  as  well  have 
studied  a  sheet  of  white  paper  with  similar  motives.  All 
that  I  met  there  was  grand  inexplicable  gravity. 

"  It  is  a  very  unfortunate  occurrence,  Helen." 

"  Rather,"  I  assented,  with  a  kind  of  dogged  satire. 
Then  I  made  every  word  firm  and  hard  and  clear. 
11  He  and  I  cannot  live  together  any  longer,  mamma. 
I  won't  be  pointed  at  by  the  world  as  a  fool  and  a  dupe. 
Let  me  go  away  from  this  house,  or  make  him  go.  I 
demand  it  in  the  name  of  decency." 

These  sentences  seemed  to  pierce  her  mail  of  compo- 
sure shaftwise. 

"  Nonsense,  Helen."  Her  words  came  fluent  enough, 
now.  "Excitement  makes  you  view  this  affair  in  wrong 
colors.  You  tell  me  that  she  was  the  same  woman 
whom  you  saw  in  his  company  on  the  hotel-piazza, 
this  autumn.  Remember  how  he  met  her  then.  You 
agreed  long  ago  not  to  consider  that  meeting  unpar- 
donably  culpable.  But  in  the  present  encounter  what 
was  there  except  the  sheerest  force  of  circumstances  ?  " 

I  laughed  with  loud  bitterness.  "  Doubtless  I  should 
be  just  the  same  fool  I  was  at  Pineside,  mamma,  but  for 
what  has  passed  since  that  time.  If  Fuller  Dobell 


PURPLE  AND  FINE   LINEN.  2OI 

really  told  you  what  you  then  told  me,  his  statements 
were  lies." 

"  Helen!" 

"  Helen  me  as  augustly  as  you  choose.  I'm  not 
rhapsodizing ;  I  deal  with  sober  facts.  Among  the 
letters  which  you  snatched  from  me  here  in  this  room, 
the  other  day,  there  was  one  which  escaped  you — which 
fell  upon  the  floor.  I  picked  it  up  afterward.  It  was 
from  this  same  woman." 

'  'You  read  it,  then?" 

"  No.  But  the  address  was  in  the  same  handwriting 
as  was  the  address  of  a  certain  other  letter  which  I 
handed  to  him  on  the  croquet-ground  at  Pineside.  Be- 
sides, his  embarrassment  on  receiving  that  second  letter 
only  strengthened  my  certainty.  This  is  not  all,  how- 
ever. You  recollect  his  absence  from  our  box  the 
other  night  at  Niblo's  ?  She  was  in  a  box  opposite ; 
he  went  there.  John  Driscoll's  excellent  lorgnette 
helped  me  to  discover  him,  though  he  was  well 
withdrawn  into  the  background."  After  this  I  rose 
up,  with  eyes  riveted  on  mamma's  face  and  with 
cheeks  that  were  burning  like  two  fire -coals.  "I  tell 
you,  mamma,  that  it  must  all  end.  I  am  human  and 
I  won't  bear  it.  See  him  when  he  returns  home 
to-night.  Tell  him  what  I  tell  you.  Say  that  I  desire 
to  live  apart  from  him — that  he  has  not  married  a  dolt 
and  an  idiot,  but  a  woman  with  a  womanly  spirit,  capa- 
ble of  resenting  insult  and  intolerant  of  having  herself 
soiled  by  his  vulgar  disrespect.  I  mean  what  I  am 
saying.  As  sure  as  my  name  is  Helen  Dobell  I  will 
leave  the  house  in  a  week's  time  if  before  then  he  has 
not  left  it." 

The  room  had  grown  so  dark,  now,  that  I  could  scarce- 
ly see  her  face.     This  is  what  she  answered,  however  : 
9* 


202  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"You  talk  like  a  fool.  I  shall  carry  no  such  mes- 
sage. If,  as  you  say,  he  is  acting  stupidly,  he  can  be 
brought  to  his  senses.  Do  you  fancy  that  I  shall 
permit  any  such  disgusting  social  scandal  as  your  sepa- 
ration ?  Remember,  please,  that  I  have  a  position  to 
support"  (O  the  enormous  majesty  of  that  pronoun 
as  she  uttered  it !)  "  and  I  do  not  intend  that  either  you 
or  Fuller  Dobell  shall  cheapen  me  before  the  world's 
eyes.  This  affair  can  be  settled  in  a  very  different  way  ; 
to-morrow,  to-night,  an  hour  or  so  later,  you  will  think 
as  I  think." 

"  It  shall  NOT  be  settled  in  any  way  but  as  I  propose  to 
settle  it,"  my  voice  cried  forth,  quivering,  shrill,  defiant. 
"  If  you  won't  speak  to  him,  /will.  And  if  he  refuses 
to  go  then,  I  shall  go  myself.  You  can't  keep  me 
here,  either  of  you  !  I  would  a  million  times  rather 
earn  my  own  living  than — 

"Hush,  Helen.  The  servants  must  have  heard  you, 
as  it  is.  I  command  you  not  to  raise  your  voice  so 
loudly  again." 

One  of  her  hands  was  on  my  shoulder,  the  other 
gripped  my  wrist.  She  pushed  me  with  quick  force 
back  into  my  chair,  standing  over  me,  after  doing  this, 
with  her  face  so  close  to  mine  that  I  felt  her  breath 
come  and  go  against  my  cheek.  "  Whatever  you  mean 
to  do,  pray  have  the  goodness  not  to  scream  out  your 
intentions  in  any  such  absurd  key.  Shall  I  help  you  off 
with  your  bonnet?"  (releasing  me  and  drawing  away 
from  me,  whilst  speaking  with  softer  tones.)  "  Where 
are  the  matches  ?  I  will  light  your  gas." 

"  No  ;  do  not  light  the  gas.  I  prefer  the  room  as  it 
is.  And  I  should  like  to  be  left  alone,  please." 

"Very  well."  She  moved  doorward.  "It  will  be 
dinner-time,  shortly." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


203 


"  I  am  not  going  down  to  dinner.     I  don't  wish  any." 

"  I  will  have  something  sent  up  to  you."  There  was 
no  touch  of  sympathy  in  her  manner,  though  its  con- 
cession verged  upon  humility.  It  seemed  so  odd  to 
hear  her  changed  voice,  now  ;  to  see  her  royally  willing 
to  step  down  from  the  throne  and  play  amiable.  Tame 
vassal  of  her  wishes  as  she  has  found  me  all  these  years, 
she  has  heard  in  that  passionate  threat  of  mine  the  voice 
of  a  spirit  which  her  majestic  vetoes  cannot  awe  into 
silence  ;  she  knows  this  and  trembles  for  results. 

"  If  you  have  my  dinner  sent  to  me  I  shan't  eat  it," 
brusquely  enough  t  returned.  She  made  no  reply ; 
she  merely  quitted  the  room,  closing  the  door  behind 
her. 

Of  course  she  had  not  been  gone  more  than  ten  min- 
utes before  I  had  become  much  calmer  of  mood  ;  and 
of  course,  too,  she  had  known  this  would  happen  and 
had  therefore  left  me  alone.  People  in  tempers  occa- 
sionally yell  out  wild  resolutions  which  they  regret 
afterwards  but  to  which  obstinacy  bids  them  cleave.  I 
had  yelled  out  one  resolution  with  all  the  eloquence  of 
hysteria.  I  might  attempt  something  more  in  the  same 
line  ;  anyhow,  the  less  of  such  rabid  rhetoric  the  better. 
And  so  (with  what  I  don't  doubt  were  very  nearly 
thoughts  of  this  description)  she  had  made  her  politic 
departure. 

Hours  have  passed  since  then.  Fuller  is  not  home 
yet.  Can  it  be  possible  that  he  will  dare  to  resent  my 
conduct  of  this  afternoon  ? — dare  to  leap  up  on  any  ped- 
estal of  insulted  dignity  regarding  what  has  occurred  ? 
Well,  he  shall  find  me  no  coward  when  the  attack 
comes.  Hotly  as  I  flung  down  the  gauntlet  before 
mamma,  no  cooler  mood  will  make  me  stoop  to  pick  it 
up  again.  There  let  it  lie. 


204  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

To  all  that  I  said  I  adhere,  only  leavening  the  hard- 
ness of  my  determination  in  one  slight  way.  This  : 

If  he  promises  that  always  hereafter  he  will  be  to  that 
woman  as  one  stranger  is  to  another,  never  holding 
communication  with  her  by  word  or  by  letter,  then,  half 
because  our  living  apart  from  each  other  will  injure 
mamma  before  the  world  she  worships,  and  half  be- 
cause I  myself  shrink  from  the  scandal  and  publicity  of 
such  a  separation,  I  will  consent  to  remain  in  this  house 
and  show  society  at  large  how  harmoniously  he  and  I 
can  manage  to  meet  among  the  babblers  and  gossips, 
during  ball  and  opera  and  dinner-party.  If  he  refuses 
to  countenance  this  condition,  I  go. 

My  eyes  are  thoroughly  open,  now,  to  the  folly  of  my 
recent  behavior.  The  whole  proceeding  was  stupid  in 
the  extreme  ;  it  was  even,  in  a  certain  sense,  grossly 
unjust  to  Fuller.  But  I  do  not  admit,  for  this  reason, 
his  right  to  assume  the  defensive.  That  meeting  in  the 
Park,  with  its  attendant  circumstances,  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  scandalous  wrong  and  outrage  to  which  he 
has  been  subjecting  me  since  the  earliest  days  of  our  en- 
gagement. There  would  have  been  provocation  for  ten 
times  my  reckless  fury. 

I  dread  to-morrow  intensely,  and  yet  I  long  for  it 
with  a  sort  of  savage  anticipation.  I  am  carrying  you 
through  turbulent  times,  Diary,  am  I  not  ?  Ah,  if 
there  were  only  a  dim  glimmer  of  hope  that  in  the  end 
a  little  comfort  might  reach  me  ;  that,  although  I  could 
have  no  sweet  sunburst  after  this  opaque  darkness,  there 
would  be  at  least  a  faint  flickering  light,  less  vivid  than 
some  clouded  moonrise  !  But  no  ;  where  is  the  vaguest 
possibility  of  such  change  ? 

Why  cannot  my  love  turn  into  the  contemptuous  hate 
he  deserves  ?  Some  women,  placed  as  I  am  placed, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2O5 

would  loathe  him  by  this.  My  cheeks  burn  with  shame 
when  I  think  of  how  I  must  love  him  always.  Such  a 
little  while  ago  I  would  have  laughed  to  hear  any  one 
say  that  my  love  did  not  find  its  deepest  root  in  respect 
for  his  moral  worth  !  What  a  fool  I  should  have  been  ! 
Here  his  character  is  laid  bare  to  me  in  all  its  ugly 
naked  selfishness ;  I  know  him  what  he  is,  cruel,  un- 
principled, no  man  of  men,  but  almost  fit  to  rank 
among  those  churlish  charlatans  who  soil  "  the  grand 
old  name  of  gentleman. "  And  yet  if  to-morrow  I  heard 
that  any  terrible  danger  threatened  him  I  should  have 
wild  fears  for  his  safety,  should  long  to  reach  him  help- 
ing hands,  should  be  willing  to  give  my  very  life  for  his. 
What  fustian  the  wiseacres  talk  who  say  that  real  love 
can  only  spring  from  devout  faith  in  the  worthiness  of 
its  object  !  I  see  now  that  in  many  a  case,  though  the 
idol  be  changed  from  gold  to  clay,  the  worshiper  must 
yet  kneel ;  that  love  will  sometimes  bear  the  most 
brutal  blows  without  falling  ;  for  love — 

Goodness  !  one  might  prose  like  this  for  pages,  and 
then  get  no  further  than  the  simple  truism  that  love  is 
— love. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

JO  V.  1 7 .  — Fuller  must  have  gotten  home  very  late 
last  night ;  or  rather  very  early  this  morning. 
He  did  not  appear  whilst  mamma  and  I  silently 
breakfasted  together.  I  was  on  my  way  upstairs  a  lit- 
tle while  afterward  when  I  met  him  descending,  face  to 
face.  He  just  glanced  at  me,  and  so  quickly  that  I  had 
not  time  to  judge  of  his  expression  ;  then,  with  averted 
head,  he  passed  downward. 

I  had  no  sooner  entered  my  room  than  I  rang  the  bell 
for  Blanche.  The  breakfast-room  had  been  no  place  to 
hold  a  discussion  with  mamma,  and  I  had  not  chosen  to 
break  silence  before  Henry  with  anything  so  domesti- 
cally ominous  as  a  request  that  she  would  allow  me  some 
private  words  upstairs.  A  message  to  this  effect,  how- 
ever, I  sent  down  by  Blanche  immediately  she  appeared. 

Whilst  waiting  for  the  answer  I  walked  the  floor 
sentinelwise.  I  was  calm,  but  with  no  self-forced  com- 
posure, no  exciting  effort  not  to  be  excited.  At  best, 
at  worst,  I  had  little  to  gain  or  lose.  My  chief  triumph 
was  to  be  in  making  Fuller  understand  that  he  could 
not  trample  upon  me  without  feeling  some  slight 
resistance.  For  the  rest,  whether  I  lived  with  him  or 
left  him,  what  did  it  matter,  after  all  ?  There  would 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


207 


still  be  the  same  deep  gulf  between  us,  not  narrowing 
with  years — broadening,  perhaps. 

Blanche  did  not  come  back  at  all.  Mamma  came  in 
her  place.  I  neither  hemmed  nor  hawed.  There  was 
the  ugly  unmanageable  bull  right  before  me  ;  I  had  only 
to  seize  it  by  the  horns  and  show  my  grappling-strength. 

"Mamma,"  I  made  beginning,  not  seating  myself, 
though  she  sat,  "  you  remember,  possibly,  everything 
which  I  said  yesterday.  Everything  then  said  I  adhere 
to.  I  am  willing  to  place  one  condition,  however,  on 
my  separation  from  Fuller.  Let  him  promise  faithfully 
never  to  hold  the  slightest  communication  with  that 
woman,  and  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  at  least,  I  shall 
remain  as  much  his  wife  as  I  have  been  since  our 
marriage.  I  strongly  prefer  that  you  should  make  him 
this  proposition.  If  you  consent  to  do  so,  please  strip 
the  matter  of  all  sentiment.  Offer  it  to  him  as  a  mere 
business  arrangement,  and  say  that  I  desire  as  early  an 
answer  as  may  conveniently  be  given." 

She  heard  me  through  with  a  graciously  condescend- 
ing heed.  Once  or  twice  whilst  I  was  speaking  I  saw 
her  vivid  eyes  look  their  keenest  into  my  face  ;  but  for 
quite  a  while  after  I  had  finished  she  sat  with  eyes 
floorward  and  with  hands  resting  serenely  on  her  lap. 
Presently  she  raised  her  head  and  became  audible  in 
steady  tranquil  tones. 

"  I  shall  not  make  any  proposition  to  Fuller  which 
would  take  it  so  impertinently  for  granted  that  he  is  as 
culpable  as  you  declare  him.  But  I  will  acquaint  him 
with  your  resolve,  speak  of  you  as  one  whose  suspicions 
may  or  may  not  approach  correctness,  and  tread  upon 
the  subject  with  the  gingerly  feet  that  common  courtesy 
makes  requisite.  And  I  will  admit  that  your  reckless 
hot-headedness  bullies  me  into  acting  as  mediator. 


208  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Any  child  may  seize  some  article  no  less  frangible  than 
costly,  stand  at  a  safe  distance  from  its  elders,  and 
threaten  complete  destruction  unless  it  is  given  what  it 
demands.  You  hold  in  your  hand  our  family  respecta- 
bility. I  don't  choose  to  remain  perfectly  inattentive 
whilst  that  is  being  dashed  into  fragments." 

"  How  you  can  doubt  that  Fuller  is  guilty  of  what  I 
accuse  him,  seems  wholly  dark  to  me,"  I  returned. 
"  But  since  you  have  such  doubts  it  will  be  best  for  me 
to  take  upon  myself  the  duty  of  seeing  and  talking  with 
Fuller.  Perhaps  I  have  been  weak  and  cowardly  in 
wanting  to  shirk  such  a  task.  He  will  have  finished 
breakfast  in  a  few  moments,  I  suppose  ?  " 

I  was  moving  doorward  when  she  sprang  up  with  an 
activity  which  her  slow  majesty  of  carriage  permits,  I 
should  judge,  about  once  every  five  years. 

She  caught  my  arm  firmly.  "  Helen,  stay  a  moment. 
You  must  not  see  Fuller  Dobell  this  morning.  I  shall 
see  him  for  you." 

"  Very  well,"  left  my  close-shut  lips  ;  "  as  you  please. 
Only,  will  you  consent  to  bear  him  the  exact  message  I 
have  already  given  you  ?  If  not,  I  am  my  own  war- 
ambassador." 

We  were  staring  at  each  other,  now.  I  had  a  queer 
thought  about  those  bold  men  who  brave  lions  and 
tigers  in  their  cages  before  thrilled  multitudes,  always 
fixing  upon  them  an  unvaried  eye-power.  "  Show  me 
one  gleam  of  timidity,"  her  eyes  seemed  to  inform  mine, 
"  and  I  will  have  you  back  in  the  old  abject  place  which 
you  have  held  under  my  rule  through  all  the  past  years 
of  your  life." 

Were  her  next  words  meant  to  try  my  courage  ? 
"  Helen,  you  will  please  remember  that  all  patience  has 
its  limits,"  between  drawn  lips  she  gave  warning. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


209 


Either  of  her  thin  nostrils  quivered  a  little,  and  her  face 
came  much  nearer  to  my  own.  I  suppose  it  was  sheer 
force  of  habit  that  pushed  me  several  steps  away  from 
her,  then.  In  other  days  I  had  dropt  my  eyes  so  often 
before  those  dark  intense  ones  of  hers,  that  now  I  dropt 
them  again.  Only  momentarily,  however  ;  and  yet  she 
took  these  slight  changes  for  signs  of  intimidation,  nerv- 
ousness, fear.  I  was  her  chattel  again — the  thing  she 
could  move  about  at  her  own  proud  pleasure  ;  the  poor 
obsequious  creature  that  not  long  ago,  if  she  had  said 
"  Helen,  I  forbid  you  to  think,"  would  have  esteemed 
the  command  more  or  less  sacred  and  made  cerebral 
efforts  to  obey  it. 

One  of  her  hands  caught  each  of  my  shoulders.  She 
shook  me  with  violence.  "You  are  a  little  fool,"  she 
began,  in  a  voice  that  seemingly  came  from  deep  down 
her  throat ;  "  a  little  headstrong  fool  and  idiot.'  I  have 
never  let  you  dictate  to  me  yet  and  I  shan't  now.  I 
tolerated  your  hare-brained  nonsense  for  a  time,  just  to 
see  how  far  you  would  carry  it ;  from  this  morning  it 
shall  end." 

I  sprang  backward,  then,  with  a  face  that  I  know  was 
lividly  white,  with  a  laugh  that  rang  bold  bitter  defi- 
ance. 

"  End  it  if  you  can  !  Your  cowed  cringing  child  is  a 
woman,  who  dares  assert  herself  and  doesn't  care  a  fig 
for  your  superb  tyrannies  any  longer.  I  am  going  down- 
stairs now  to  tell  Fuller  what  I  told  you.  This,  I  trust, 
will  be  proof  enough  that  I  am  the  sort  of  headstrong 
fool  who  means  to  carry  out  her  obstinate  designs." 

As  I  turned  to  leave  the  room  she  darted  in  front  of 
me,  closed  the  door  noisily  and  planted  herself  before 
it.  The  fine  majesty  of  her  attitude  made  a  grand  pict- 
ure. Just  a  little  change  of  costume — say  a  ruff  about 


210  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

her  throat,  a  coronet  or  a  few  pearls  on  her  white  hair — 
and  she  might  have  been  some  dead-and-gone  celeb- 
rity being  historically  ill-mannered  to  some  pitiable  vic- 
tim. 

But  I  didn't  behave  much  like  a  pitiable  victim,  by 
the  bye.  I  turned  away  with  a  sneer. 

"  There  is  another  door,  you  know,  leading  from  the 
dressing-room,  if  I  chose  to  take  it.  But  I  don't  choose. 
Your  remaining  there  a  few  hours  will  not  prevent  my 
ultimately  seeing  Fuller."  After  that  I  supplied  myself 
with  a  book  and  sat  down  near  the  window. 

Complete  silence  whilst  I  pretended  to  read  ;  a  silence 
that  possibly  lasted  three  good  minutes.  She  had  tried, 
I  was  telling  myself,  to  reinstate  between  us  the  old 
slave-and-master  terms.  She  had  failed.  What  would 
be  her  next  course  ?  Concession  ?  I  could  hardly  be- 
lieve that ;  it  was  sheer  flying  in  the  face  of  the  probable. 

At  length  curiosity  drew  my  look  doorward.  As  it 
did  so  she  spoke,  still  standing  in  the  place  where  I  had 
last  seen  her. 

"Helen." 

"Well,  mamma." 

"  I  suppose  you  will  not  hear  reason.  One  must 
meet  you  on  your  own  ridiculous  ground." 

She  came  slowly  towards  me  whilst  these  words  were 
being  pronounced.  It  was  a  full  unconditional  surren- 
der. I  had  no  sensation  of  triumph,  however  ;  indeed, 
I  felt  a  slight  blush  warm  my  face  as  she  approached 
me.  She  has  been  so  high-handed  a  tyrant  for  so  long 
a  time,  in  her  dealings  with  me,  that  I  had  a  kind  of  odd 
sympathy  with  her  humiliation  ;  sharing  it,  even,  in  a 
vague  reflected  way. 

Her  next  sentences  showed  that  they  were  not  ut- 
tered without  a  touch  of  difficult  effort.  "I  will  bear 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  211 

Fuller  the  message  which  you  desire  me  to  bear.  .  Are 
you  satisfied  ?" 

"  Perfectly,"  I  responded,  rising.  "  You  promise  me 
that  you  will  forget  no  word,  mamma  ?  " 

She  bit  her  lip,  gathered  her  brows,  looked  for  a  sec- 
ond as  though  on  the  brink  of  some  stern  answer,  and 
finally  bowed,  coldly  acquiescent.  "I  promise.  Have 
you  any  further  cross-questioning  as  a  sign  of  your  dis- 
trust ?  " 

"None,"  I  returned,  carelessly  curt.  "But  please 
add  that  I  should  like  to  get  his  reply  as  early  as  possi- 
ble. This  afternoon,  if  convenient." 

That  was  all  that  passed  between  us.  Very  soon 
afterward  mamma  swept  serenely  from  rny  room,  not 
looking  in  the  least  as  though  she  left  me  victor  of  the 
field. 

I  wanted  immensely  to  steal  downstairs  and  listen, 
if  possible,  to  her  interview  with  Fuller.  But  wanting 
was  all  I  could  do  :  decency  kept  handing  me  back  my 
intention  like  a  bad  coin,  every  time  I  tried  to  put  it  in 
use. 

My  next  mee'ting  with  mamma  was  at  lunch  :  Fuller 
had  gone  out.  Whilst  Henry  served  us  we  talked  ele- 
gant nothings,  mostly  about  the  marked  change  in  the 
weather,  if  my  memory  be  trustworthy  just  here.  When 
Henry  had  departed  on  some  momentary  mission,  how- 
ever, 

"  I  have  spoken  to  Fuller,"  mamma  plunged. 

I  left  off  being  surgical  to  my  cold  bird.  "  And  he 
has  given  what  sort  of  an  answer  ?  " 

"  He  is  very  sore  about  your  conduct  of  yesterday," 
she  stated,  with  hardening  face.  "  He  believes  himself 
merely  to  have  been  the  victim  of  circumstances.  He 
blames  you  for  vicious  and  vulgar  behavior." 


212  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  leaned  back  in  my  chair  with  a  chilly  smile.  "He 
is  a  little  unjust.  If  my  behavior  was  vicious  I  am  quite 
sure  that  its  vulgarity  didn't  very  far  surpass  that  of  the 
person  whom  I  heard  him  address  as  Edith,  telling  her 
not  to  make  such  an  infernal  noise  for  God's  sake,  and 
asking  her  if  she  did  not  see  how  he  was  placed  ;  since 
this  person  screamed  and  carried  on  to  a  really  painful 
extent."  I  laughed  my  satiric  best,  right  here.  "  Possi- 
bly there  was  so  much  ambiguity  about  the  form  of  ad- 
dress adopted  by  Fuller  that  I  drew  most  unjustifiable 
conclusions ;  nor  had  I  the  least  reason  to  draw  them, 
you  will  perhaps  insist,  when  past  experiences  tended 
to  exculpate  him  so  honorably." 

Mamma  went  on  precisely  as  though  she  had  been 
seized  with  a  transitory  deafness  during  the  delivery  of 
my  sarcasms.  "  I  had  hard  work,  I  can  assure  you,  in 
even  making  Fuller  listen,  at  first ;  he  was  so  bitter 
about  the  whole  occurrence.  But  after  a  while  he  got 
to  look  at  the  matter  in  a  proper  light — to  see  what  sad 
results  your  dare-devil  temerity  might  occasion.  Let 
me  cut  it  all  short.  He  accepts  the  arrangement  which 
you  propose  for  him.  When  you  and  he  next  meet  you 
are  to  meet  civilly — pray  understand  that." 

"  Yes.  And  now  let  me  understand  one  thing  more, 
please.  Does  he  deny  the  charge  implied,  if  not  made, 
in  the  message  I  sent  him  ?  " 

Enter  Henry.     Consequent  silence  on  mamma's  part. 

I  saw  Fuller  at  dinner.  There  was  between  us  no 
directly  personal  exchange  of  remarks  ;  we  talked  mam- 
maward  again  ;  that  was  all. 

I  am  victorious,  but  ah,  how  sad,  how  worthless  a 
victory  it  is !  How  much  more  I  should  value  a  little 
grain  of  love  added  to  an  infinitude  of  humiliation  ! 
What  a  meagre  satisfaction  is  it  when  only  your  sense 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


213 


of  justice  has  been  appeased,  and  your  empty  heart 
yearns  as  wildly  as  mine  yearns  for  the  one  sweet  unat- 
tainable comfort ! 

He  will  keep  his  word,  I  suppose.  Fear,  if  nothing 
else,  will  make  him  keep  it.  I  have  frightened  him, 
just  as  I  have  frightened  mamma. 

If  people  had  called  to-night  I  would  have  gone  down 
and  seen  them,  merely  to  escape  my  gnawing  thoughts. 
But  it  is  a  wildly  stormy  November  night,  full  of  chill 
rain  and  sad  windy  sounds,  and  no  one  has  come. 
Somehow  whilst  sitting  alone  I  have  let  my  memory  go 
back  among  past  years,  and  have  recollected  one  girl,  a 
school-friend,  Mary  Gray,  whom  I  used  to  love  dearly 
and  have  long  cosey  talks  with  about  both  our  futures. 
She  was  poor  and  a  nobody,  was  Mary.  She  may  be 
dead  now.  Mamma  made  me  stop  visiting  her,  and  we 
have  not  met  since  I  was  fourteen.  But  I  can  see  her 
rather  homely  bright-eyed  face  as  though  I  had  looked 
upon  it  yesterday.  I  hope  she  is  not  dead,  but  married 
and  happy  ;  married  and  making  some  man  happy  too, 
whether  her  lord  be  carpenter,  grocer  or  drudging  clerk. 
For  she  was  all  heart  and  sympathy  and  warm  impulses 
— worth  a  hundred  Margie  Cartwrights  and  Kate  Efnng- 
hams,  with  their  trunkfuls  of  Parisian  wardrobe  and  their 
hollow  souls.  O,  Mary,  if  I  had  you  here  to-night,  to 
wind  my  arms  about,  and  lean  my  head  upon,  and  tell 
all  my  bitter  troubles  !  I  think  you  could  make  me  cry. 
As  it  is  I  can't  cry  a  tear. 

Yes,  I  have  conquered,  but  after  all  what  was  there 
to  fight  for  ?  A  battle-field  that  was  choked  with  my 
dead  already — my  dearest  dreams  and  hopes,  all  slaugh- 
tered in  one  sad  calamitous  massacre  ! 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

OV.  27.— I  haven't  had  the  heart  to  touch 
you,  Diary,  for — let  me  count :  ten  whole  days. 
Ten  days  of  opera-going  and  dinner-going  and 
dinner-giving,  and  here  and  there  a  party  ;  for  parties 
have  begun  already  and  mamma  makes  her  magnificent 
toilettes  in  which  to  startle  dowagerdom,  and  I  let  my- 
self drift  along  with  the  social  current. 

Melville  Delano  entered  our  box  at  the  opera  on  the 
Monday  evening  which  followed  Fuller's  acceptance  of 
my  little  domestic  plan.  My  husband  was  not  there  at 
the  time  of  Melville's  entrance.  He  came  in  with  an 
air  of  placid  confidence,  taking  the  little  stool  at  my  side 
which  somebody  had  just  vacated. 

I  leaned  forward  so  that  my  face  was  quite  close  to 
his.  Then  I  fixed  serious  eyes  upon  .him,  and  mur- 
mured in  the  bosom  of  my  upheld  bouquet : 

"  You  mustn't  do  this  any  more,  please." 

His  sombrely  black  eyes  caught  a  sudden  glitter 
under  a  suclden  frown.  "  Do  what  any  more  ?  " 

"  Come  here." 

He  looked  as  though  on  the  verge,  of  springing  up 
from  his  chair.  I  put  forth  a  hand,  resting  it  lightly, 
momentarily,  upon  his  arm.  That  seemed  to  say 
"  peace  "  to  the  troubled  waters,  somehow. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  21 5 

"  Don't  go  now,  Mr.  Delano — not  just  yet,  I  mean. 
You  must  understand;"  (giving  my  shoulders  a  little 
impatient  shrug.) 

"  Understand  what?  "  he  wanted  to  know,  in  a  sort 
of  gruff  mutter,  strengthening  my  belief  that  the  ma- 
jority of  men  are  able  to  whisper  about  as  well  as  a  lion 
is  able  to  mew  :  and  low  voices  were  requisite,  by  the 
bye,  as  it  was  during  a,  musicless  entr'acte,  and  just  at 
my  elbow  in  the  next  box  sat  a  bony  girl  in  yellow, 
with  large  ears  and  no  male  society. 

"  Why,  simply  that  I  don't  send  you  away  from  any 
dislike.  I  am  compelled  to  do  so." 

"What  compels  you  ?" 

"  People — the  world— propriety." 

His  face  was  like  a  thunder-cloud,  with  eyes  that 
were  lightnings.  Luckily  his  seat  was  low  enough  for 
this  change  to  escape  public  notice,  and  his  back  was 
turned  from  mamma  and  the  box's  other  occupants. 
"  Did  people  or  the  world  or  propriety,"  he  growled, 
"  dictate  such  a  course  to  you  the  last  time  we  met 
here  ?  I  was  quite  in  favor  then  ;  I  was  sent  for  and 
made  much  of  through  an  entire  evening.  What  does 
this  change  mean  ?  Some  reconciliation  with  your 
dear  husband  ?  some —  " 

"  Don't  be  insolent,  Mr.  Delano.  You  know  me 
well  enough  to  know  that  I  will  not  stand  it." 

"I  know  nothing  about  you,  except  that  you  are  a 
very  weather-vane  for  whimsical  changeability.  You 
blow  hot  and  cold ;  you  play  fast  and  loose  ;  and  you  ex- 
pect that  I  am  tamely  to  stand  your  countless  shades  of 
treatment." 

"  I  forgive  you  because  you  are  absurdly  excited,"  I 
whispered,  still  addressing  my  bouquet,  "  and  evidently 
don't  understand  the  full  force  of  your  statements." 


2i6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Pardon  me.  I  understand  it  thoroughly.  I  was 
the  slave  of  your  caprices  before  you  married,  and  I  still 
am  to  remain  so,  it  seems,  now  that  you  have  changed 
Jeffreys  into  Dobell,  I  was  a  fool  to  let  you  use  me  as 
you  did  use  me  the  other  night.  Do  you  fancy  that  I 
did  not  krtow  you  were  using  me  then  ?  "  His  passion- 
ate eyes,  try  as  I  would  to  avoid  them,  drew  the  color 
into  my  cheeks,  just  here.  "But  I  came  to-night  be- 
cause a  smile  from  you  has  its  value  to  a  poor  fool  like 
myself,  even  at  the  price  of  self-respect.  The  old  story, 
you  know,  of  the  moth  and  the  candle.  I  had  little 
reason  to  fancy  that  I  would  not  continue  your  cat's- 
paw  for  one  evening  longer,  especially  since  recent 
events  made  such  a  condition  of  affairs  seem  highly 
probable." 

My  cheeks  were  crimson,  now.  I  forgot  his  bold 
impertinence  in  the  sudden  curiosity  he  had  pricked  to 
life.  "Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  I  faltered,  "that 
everybody  has  heard  about — about — ?  " 

"That  dramatic  collision  in  the  Park  on  Saturday?" 
he  sneered.  "  My  dear  Mrs.  Dobell,  it  is  town  gossip." 

This  sneer  brought  me  to  my  senses  at  last.  I  made 
myself  all  haughtiness  and  icy  disdain.  "  Mr.  Delano, 
we  must  end  this  discussion  at  once.  There  is  only  one 
way  to  deal  with  ungentlemanly  rudeness." 

A  single  water-spurt  merely  aggravates  some  fires. 
"  Yes,  yes,"  he  hastened,  "  I  am  ungentlemanly  now,  but 
it  was  a  trifle  otherwise  when  I  saved  you  from  insult 
last  autumn,  on  that  hotel-piazza.  You  were  so  stupid  in 
learning  the  lesson  I  tried  to  teach  that  you  deserve  all 
sorts  of  punishment  hereafter.  When  you  told  me, 
whilst  we  were  saying  good-by  to  each  other  in  the 
hall  at  Pineside,  that  you  meant  to  marry  Fuller  Dobell, 
it  was  on  the  verge  of  my  tongue  to  warn  you,  in  the 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


217 


most  disinterested  compassionate  spirit.  I  should  have 
done  so,  but  for  your  mother's  appearance — should  have 
verified  the  words  which  I  had  just  spoken.  Do  you 
recollect  them  ?  They  were  :  ''treat  me  like  a  friend 
and  you  shall  find  me  worthy  of  all  trust."  Not  that 
you  had  treated  me  so,  by  the  bye,  but  I  would  have 
served  'you,  nevertheless,  in  the  fearless  statement  of  a 
few  plain  facts.  More  than  once  during  your  engage- 
ment I  thought  of  still  proving  myself  your  benefactor 
before  it  was  too  late.  But  you  were  so  hedged  in,  by 
then,  with  bigoted  beliefs,  that  no  doubt  my  efforts 
would  have  been  mere  futility.  Perhaps  I  did  best  to 
hold  my  tongue." 

"  As  you  will  oblige  me  by  doing  now,"  I  murmured, 
freezingly. 

He  sat  quite  silent  for  some  little  time,  after  this, 
staring  at  his  opera-hat.  Suddenly  he  lifted  his  face  to 
mine  again.  I  saw  at  once  that  he  had  grown  calmer. 

"You  think  me  ungenerous  as  well  as  ungentle- 
manly,"  he  recommenced,  in  tones  far  less  emphatic, 
"  to  have  spoken  like  this.  Perhaps  you  are  right;  I 
saw  the  misery  on  your  face  to-night,  knowing  the  face 
so  well,  though  doubtless  it  is  hidden  from  others. 
Perhaps  you  are  wrong  ;  there  are  such  things  as  play- 
ing with  edged  tools  ;  you  should  have  left  matters  as 
they  existed  between  us  when  you  returned  from  your 
wedding-tour  ;  you  were  not  justified  in  trying  to  make 
a  worse  fool  of  me  than  I  am  already.  However," 
(and  his  voice  deepened  with  such  tenderness,  at  this 
point,  that  I  shuddered  lest  the  bony  girl  in  yellow 
should  hear  him)  "  I  am  your  friend  always,  in  spite  of 
yourself;  and  who  knows  but  you  shall  have  occasion, 
one  day,  for  using  me  to  some  real  advantage  ?  Good- 


night. 


10 


218 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN 


He  rose  abruptly,  offered  me  no  hand,  bowed  with 
rather  strained  courtesy  to  mamma,  and  left  the  box*. 
A  few  moments  later  Fuller  re-entered.  Had  he  seen 
Melville  ?  His  manner  evidenced  no  displeasure,  if  he 
had. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

]LL  this  happened  on  Monday  evening.  I  some- 
how went  home  with  kindly  feelings  toward 
Melville.  "  Plus  on  aime  quelqu'un,  mains  il 
faut  qti'on  le  flatte"  ran  through  my  brain  when  I 
thought  of  him.  He  had  roughly  rebuked  me,  yet  had 
I  not  deserved  all  I  had  gotten  ?  And  his  very  bitter- 
ness of  accusation  and  reproach,  had  this  not  sprung 
from  a  devout  loyal  love  ?  The  man  is  as  much  in 
love  with  me  now  as  he  was  at  Pineside.  I  think  that 
until  that  first  night  at  the  opera,  his  love  had  grown 
like  a  torpid  serpent  under  such  a  winter  of  indifference 
as  he  had  received,  poor  fellow,  and  when  the  burst  of 
sunshine  came,  the  serpent  found  itself  suddenly  ting- 
ling into  activity  again.  It  was  sheer  folly  and  gross 
cruelty  for  me  to  make  him  the  servant  of  my  own 
selfish  ends.  Melville  has  a  large  noble  heart,  and — 

Stuff  and  verbiage  !  I  made  much  the  same  moral 
inventory  of  some  one  else,  once.  I  think  I  shall  never 
write  or  speak  praisefully  of  any  character  again.  I  am 
going  to  turn  a  Vivien  of  backbiters  and  leave  "  not  even 
Launcelot  brave  nor  Galahad  clean."  How  do  I  know 
that  Melville  Delano  is  not  a  deception,  an  apple  of 
Sodom,  a  whited  sepulchre  ?  Surely  not  because  truth 
and  honesty  seem  to  have  made  -his  eyes  their  especial 
stronghold ;  not  because  he  seems  to  speak  what  he 


22O  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

means ;  not  because  I  have  never  caught  him  in  fraud 
or  falsehood.  These  are  no  proofs.  There  is  a  kind  of 
Gorham  plate  virtue,  I  find,  that  stands  immense  wear 
but  at  length  shows,  of  necessity,  its  base  alloy.  For 
all  I  know,  his  may  be  of  this  durable  but  imitative  kind. 

Two  days  went  on  almost  eventlessly.  By  that  time 
the  relations  between  Fuller  and  myself  had  grown  what 
they  are  at  present,  and  what  they  shall  probably  re- 
main (I  have  no  reason  to  think  otherwise)  till  one  of 
us  is  out  of  the  world  and  death  has  set  his  dark  signa- 
ture to  the  divorce  which  only  lacks  our  own.  We 
both  occupy,  when  alone  together,  a  kind  of  middle 
camping-ground  between  coolness  and  civility  :  when 
with  people  (mamma  excepted)  we  are  gently  cordial, 
each  to  each.  I  tell  him  nothing  that  occurs  from  day 
to  day  ;  with  me  he  is  similarly  reticent.  Unconfiden- 
tial  half-ceremonious  courtesy — that  just  about  defines 
it.  A  marriage  that  is  a  tragic  sardonic  jest  !  I  en- 
vfed  passionately  an  organ-grinder's  wife  whom  I  saw 
yesterday,  her  lord's  conjugal  accompanist  on  the  tam- 
bourine. Perhaps  he  wasn't  her  legal  lord,  by  the  bye. 
Well,  they  made  their  discords  companionably,  and  in 
any  case  her  right  to  call  him  husband  was  a  diviner 
one,  doubtless,  than  all  my  pompous  wedding-pageant 
ever  gave  to  me  ! 

On  Wednesday  night  I  dined  with  Fuller  at  the 
Chamberlanes'.  It  was  a  colossus  of  dinners,  given  for 
two  English  lords  to  whose  sacred  names  I  don't  dare 
offer  the  insult  of  incorrect  spelling.  One  of  their 
mightinesses  took  me  into  dinner  and  bored  me  very 
keenly  through  a  sort  of  repast  that  nobody  could  have 
eaten,  course  for  course,  without  bursting,  or  drank, 
wine  for  wine,  without  besotting  himself.  My  blue- 
blooded  neighbor  stared  mutely  at  the  epergne  in  a 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  22I 

manner  which  I  at  first  took  for  haughtiness  but  after- 
wards discovered  to  be  stupidity.  I  can't  help  confess- 
ing, too,  that  the  hands  and  feet  possessed  by  this  en 
gaging  peer  seriously  shook  one  of  my  theories  regard- 
ing the  physical  results  of  aristocratic  parentage.  But 
for  all  that  is  known  to  the  contrary  by  our  vulgai 
transatlantic  minds,  my  potentate  may  have  been  ex- 
changed in  his  cradle,  to  the  detriment  of  the  rightful 
heir  ;  a  species  of  misfortune  only  too  common  among 
select  English  circles,  if  their  native  novelists  are  credi- 
ble authority :  and  alas  !  these  are  the  one  means  we 
can  command  of  gaining  an  occasional  precious  glimpse 
into  the  abodes  of  Birth.  For  when  we  go  to  England 
ourselves  their  lordships  would  almost  sit  at  meat  with 
their  head  butlers,  I  believe,  rather  than  invite  us 
among  their  holy  gatherings.  It  is  of  course  an  im- 
mense pity  that  they  shouldn't  have  us  ;  but  it  is  truly 
an  enormous  pity  that  we  should  take  the  refusal  so  to 
heart,  and  when  they  visit  our  own  shores  conduct  our- 
selves before  them  so  much  as  though  we  were  bent 
upon  working  out  our  salvation  in  social  British  eyes, 
and  upon  reaching,  some  fortunate  day,  after  long  wan- 
dering through  the  desert  of  their  disfavor,  the  happy 
Canaan  of  their  esteem. 

Cornelia  Walters  was  among  the  guests.  Whilst  the 
men  were  wine-bibbing  after  dinner,  I  managed  to  get 
Cornelia  into  a  corner  of  the  drawing-room. 

"  Well,"  she  opened  conversation  merrily,  "  what  do 
you  think  of  his  lordship  ?  " 

I  shut  both  eyes  very  tight  indeed,  and  yawned 
cavernously.  "  What  gross  irreverence,"  she  com- 
mented, with  a  bubbling  laugh.  "  Had  you  any  idea 
that  he  owns  nearly  a  whole  county  and  has  three  or 
four  other  titles  besides  being  an  earl  ?  Louis  knows 


222  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

him  quite  well ;  met  him  in  Switzerland.     It  was  Louis 
who  wrote  him  down  at  the  club,  the  other  day." 

"  Louis  is  in  luck.  I  suppose  Lord  What-you-may- 
call  has  given  a  little  practical  aid  in  the  cultivation  of 
his  broad  acres  ;  his  hands  and  feet  are  the  only  evidence 
of  such  toil  that  I  had  to  judge  from,  but  they  formed 
evidence  of  a  rather  solid  sort." 

"If the  Chamberlanes  could  hear  you  they'd  gnash 
the  family-teeth  in  furious  concert  at  having  let  you  go 
in  with  one  of  their  dear  aristocrats.  You're  a  perfect 
communist,  I  declare  !  If  I  get  you  a  little  red  cap  will 
you  promise  to  wear  it,  Madame  Robespierre  ?  " 

"Don't  make  me  more  notorious  than  I  am,  Cor- 
nelia," I  murmured,  meaningly.  Cornelia  looked  at  the 
carpet,  with  sobered  face.  "  No  doubt  I  am  enough  in 
people's  mouths  as  it  is." 

Cornelia  did  something  that  was  half  coo  and  half  tit- 
ter, whilst  smelling  with  immense  olfactory  diligence  her 
share  of  the  bouquets  which  we  ladies  had  all  gotten  at 
dinner. 

"  Especially  as  I  had  Belle  Dillinger  and  Mr.  Inmann 
for  an  audience,"  I  persisted,  confident  that  if  I  bored 
Mrs.  Walters  deeply  enough  I  should  penetrate  this 
amazing  crust  of  prudence  and  reach  language  at  last. 
"  But  I  suppose  the  original  story  has  been  twisted  into 
a  perfect  corkscrew  of  distortion,  by  this  time.  Doubt- 
less if  I  should  hear  your  edition  I  shouldn't  recognize 
myself  as  its  heroine." 

Cornelia  found  a  tongue  then,  and  ceased  to  associate 
exclusively  with  Boston  rosebuds.  She  smiled  again, 
but  it  was  a  smile  tart  and  unmirthful,  making  me  re- 
member that  she  was  Fuller's  sister.  "  My  dear  Helen, 
it  would  have  been  much  better  after  all,  as  I  think 
you'll  admit,  if  I  had  availed  myself  of  Fuller's  permis- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

sion  to  displace  the  coachman  on  that  rear  seat.  I  could 
have  kept  you  in  order  so  nicely,  you  know,  when  the 
necessary  time  came.  What  a  pity  one  can't  have 
glimpses  of  the  future,  every  once  in  a  while  !  " 

"  Don't  think  me  rude,  Cornelia,"  I  made  prompt 
reply,  "  if  I  express  myself  keenly  grateful  that  you  did 
not  go.  I  make  no  allusion,  of  course,  to  the  creditable 
appearance  you  and  I  would  have  presented,  trundling 
up  Fifth  Avenue  panier  to  panier,  back  to  back,  chignon 
to  chignon.  I  speak  solely  with  appreciative  recol- 
lections of  John's  good  services  in  jumping  out  and 
seizing  the  horses'  heads  at  just  the  important  moment." 

Cornelia  gave  a  mass  of  marble  nudity  at  her  elbow 
much  critical  inspection.  "  It  wouldn't  have  been  the 
worst  thing  that  might  have  happened,  Helen,  if  some- 
body had  seized  your  head  a  little  while  afterward. 
However,  I  don't  wish  to  make  malicious  comments." 

"  An  excellent  resolution,"  I  hastened.  "  Keep 
your  sarcastic  powers  well  in  reserve,  Cornelia.  Scan- 
dal attacks  the  most  innocent,  you  know,  and  even  you 
may  be  called  upon,  at  some  future  time,  for  a  little  self- 
defence.  But  suppose  I  take  your  witticism  to  have 
been  seriously  meant.  Are  you  a  representative  of 
popular  opinion  ?  Does  the  world  consider  that  I  acted 
stupidly,  the  other  day  ?  Does  it  uphold  Fuller  and 
condemn  me  ?  Don't  spare  me  with  your  answers, 
please.  They  can't  wound  me.  I'm  quite  panoplied 
with  my  own  convictions." 

Cornelia  laughed  rather  unamiably.  "  If  you're  not 
afraid  of  the  truth,  nobody  whom  I  have  heard  neglect 
to  mind  their  own  business  about  the  matter  has  done 
anything  except  condemn  you." 

11  And  is  it  generally  known  who  the  woman  was?  " 
I  questioned,  calmly. 


224  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Oh,  yes.  An  improper  character.  You  are  sup- 
posed, of  course,  to  have  had  some  knowledge  that  she 
belonged  among  the  indiscretions  of  Fuller's  bachelor- 
hood ;  but  it  hasn't  been  considered  precisely  good 
style  for  you  to  have  availed  yourself  of  such  enlighten- 
ment." 

"Bachelorhood!"  I  jerked  the  word  out  between 
sneering  lips.  ' '  In  other  words,  they  assert  that  I  merely 
made  a  kind  of  hysterical  fool  of  myself,  having  just  the 
ghost  of  a  reason." 

"That  is  about  right,  I  fancy.  Didn't  you  say  that 
my  answers  were  not  to  spare  you  ?  Let  me  persevere 
in  taking  you  at  your  word.  You  are  considered  to 
have  given  Fuller  excellent  excuse  for  being  perma- 
nently furious,  and  the  opposite  course  which  he  seems 
to  have  taken  astonishes  everybody."  Cornelia  re- 
peated her  unamiable  smile.  "I  wonder  what  they 
would  have  thought  of  you  abroad,  in  any  of  the  Euro- 
pean places.  New  York,  you  know,  is  a  perfect  Happy 
Valley  of  propriety,  when  compared  with  foreign  cities. 
Here  a  man  cannot  go  one  hair's-breadth  out  of  the 
beaten  track  without  hearing  shouts  of  social  indigna- 
tion ;  whilst  in  London  or  Paris  he  may  leave  ail  actress 
to  join  a  princess,  if  he  so  desires.  There  Society  is  a 
sort  of  pleasant  restaurant,  where  one  strolls  in,  calls  for 
what  one  pleases,  and  behaves  completely  as  one  wants, 
the  only  stringent  rule  being  that  one  must  dress,  talk, 
and  act  generally  like  a  person  of  culture.  Here  society 
is  a  sort  of  ultra-strict  church-meeting,  where  the 
vaguest  deviation  from  recognized  statutes  of  decorum 
sends  a  wrathful  Bible  journeying  toward  the  offender's 
head.  It  is  very  lucky  for  Fuller  that  people  can  pro- 
duce no  more  powerful  charge  than  the  fact  of  his 
having  had  his  carriage  jounced  against  a  certain  other 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  22$ 

and  finding  this  in  possession  of  a  rather  objectionable 
occupant  whom  he  had  known  before  marriage.  If 
scandalous  report  had  seen  fit  to  place  him  inside  the 
carriage  of  the  unconventional  lady,  lots  of  his  female 
friends  whom  I  know  about  would  have  been  bullied  by 
their  husbands  into  cutting  him  ;  and  I  doubt  whether 
even  the  men  themselves  would  dare  bow  to  him  if 
Mrs.  Grundy  made  the  round  statement  that  he  had 
been  seen  publicly  walking  our  streets  in  the  same  per- 
ilous company." 

I  suppose  that  I  might  have  worked  myself  into  quite 
a  fury  over  the  superb  injustice  of  these  remarks  ;  but  I 
chose  to  rein  in  any  impulse  toward  self-exoneration. 
Cornelia  was  evidently  in  thorough  ignorance  concern- 
ing Fuller's  conduct  since  his  marriage,  however  much 
she  may  have  known  regarding  it  before  then  ;  and  as  this 
ignorance  lay  at  the  root  of  the  censure  with  which  she 
chose  to  treat  my  own  behavior,  natural  enough  was  it 
that  I  should  feel  anxious  to  set  myself  right  (yes,  even 
in  Cornelia's  opinion)  by  the  unfolding  of  a  tale  whose 
lightest  word  ought  to  weigh  importantly  to  my  advan- 
tage. But  since  matters  had  assumed  their  present 
condition  between  Fuller  and  myself,  I  felt  deprived  of 
the  privilege  to  tell  all  that  I  knew.  Before  entering 
into  that  peace-treaty  of  which  mamma  has  had  the 
negotiating,  I  might  have  presented  my  sister-in-law 
with  a  few  prominent  if  not  silencing  facts  ;  but  now  my 
duty  is  to  deal  with  Fuller's  misconduct  as  with  some- 
thing which  he  has  agreed  to  expiate  by  years  of  altered 
living.  No  matter  how  much  of  a  farce  was  our  recon- 
ciliation. We  were  reconciled;  and  I  am  bound  to 
show  the  compact  some  sort  of  respect. 

And  yet  it  was  hard  work  for  me  to  leave  Cornelia  in 
such  woful  darkness  about  the  real  truth.  I  daresay 
10* 


226  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

that  if  Mrs.  Chauncey  Crawford  had  not  joined  us  very 
soon  afterward,  my  struggle  would  have  cost  me  abso- 
lute pain.  As  it  was,  Mrs.  Crawford's  impassioned 
questioning  about  all  that  his  lordship  paid  me  the 
pointed  honor  of  saying,  brought  with  it  an  amused  for- 
getfulness  of  more  serious  matters. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

|EC.  15. — The  last  gap  in  you  was  a  mere  crevice, 
Diary,  when  compared  with  this  great  chasm  of 
neglect.  And  yet  what  has  there  been  which 
was  worth  the  chronicling  ?  To-night  a  dinner ;  to- 
morrow night  a  ball ;  to-morrow  a  theatre-party ;  and  to- 
morrow the  opera.  Sometimes  I  look  at  mamma  won- 
deringly,  and  ask  myself  if  there  is  any  chance  that  she  will 
grow  dead  tired  of  it  all,  some  day.  Heaven  pity  her,  if 
she  does  !  For  myself,  I  put  on  my  purple  and  my  fine 
linen  with  bored  feelings  and  take  it  off  with  grateful. 
Lent  is  a  sort  of  Avallon  to  me  ;  a  haven  of  rest  that  I 
shall  find  quite  as  refreshingly  nice,  doubtless,  as  though 
it  were 

"  Deep-meadowed,  happy,  fair  with  orchard-lawns 
And  bowery  hollows  crowned  with  summer  sea." 

But  the  voyage  thither  is  certainly  very  slow  and  stupid 
work.  I  often  discover  myself  struggling  intensely  to 
take  interest  in  my  surroundings  of  "  babble  and  revel 
and  wine" — to  compliment  Mr.  Tennyson  by  quoting 
from  him  twice  in  one  page.  Now  and  then,  during 
a  day  or  two,  I  flatter  myself  that  the  stone  has  yielded 
to  the  constant  dropping  at  last,  and  that  I  am  begin- 
ning to  be  a  bird  of  the  same  feather  with  the  flock 


228  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

among  which  I  fly.  But  it  all  turns  out,  very  soon,  to 
be  a  delusion  ;  a  flash  in  the  pan.  Most  of  the  people 
whom  I  meet  seem  characterless — people  of  wood  and 
putty.  They  talk  to  me  and  their  language,  like  some 
wretched  shawl,  "mere  heaps  of  holes  to  one  another 
stitched,"  appears  wrapped  about  their  thought's  gaunt 
poverty  in  the  vain  hope  of  concealing  it.  Some  of 
them  are  dead  levels  of  correctness;  some  are  great 
plateaus  of  tedious  badness  ;  but  not  one  wears  a  single 
hillock  of  originality,  personality,  self-assertion  :  I  of 
course  except  silly  prejudices,  which  one  finds  in  plenty. 

But  very  possibly  I  am  wrong ;  perhaps  I  only  see 
the  world  reflected  in  the  cracked  mirror  of  my  own 
soul.  If  a  dyspeptic  L'ver  can  make  the  brightest  sky 
look  dreary  to  us,  why  should  not  a  broken  heart  bring 
about  equally  despondent  changes  ? 

No  doubt  I  should  have  gotten  a  kind  of  resignation 
by  this  time,  if  I  had  plunged  myself  recklessly  into'that 
sea  of  flirtation,  fastness,  unmarried  wedlock,  with  which 
a  woman  in  my  sphere  of  life,  provided  she  doesn't  pos- 
sess a  hump,  a  hair-lip,  or  any  other  such  physical  ec- 
centricity, can  easily  familiarize  herself.  Yes,  I  should 
have  gotten  the  sort  of  resignation  that 

"  Goes  upon  its  business  and  its  pleasure 
And  knows  not  all  the  depths  of  its  regret." 

I  make  no  childish  boasts  ;  but  many  a  woman  in  my 
same  situation  would  have  gone  tripping  oft"  arm-in-arm 
with  the  tempter  weeks  before  now.  It  bothers  Cornelia 
Walters,  I  am  more  than  half  sure,  to  see  how  I  resist 
every  temptation  to  be  fast.  The  other  day  whilst  we 
were  lunching  at  home  in  the  absence  of  both  marnma 
and  Fuller,  Henry  had  no  sooner  made  a  permanent 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  229 

departure  from  the  room  than  my  sister-in-law  produced 
a  package  of  cigarettes. 

"  Don't  look  horrified,  Helen,  but  please  give  me  a 
light ;  that  is,  if  you  refuse  to  join  me." 

"  I  shall  not  give  you  a  light,"  declined  I,  a  little 
tartly. 

"Then  I  can  help  myself,"  laughed  Cornelia,  rising 
and  looking  about  her  till  she  had  discovered  some 
matches. 

"It  is  very  mortifying,  Cornelia,"  I  began,  to  think 
of  Henry  coming  in  and  smelling  smoke." 

"  Do  you  suppose  that  he'll  believe  I  am  responsible 
for  it  ?  "  she  wanted  to  know,  with  much  sarcastic  anx- 
iety. "  I  should  be  miserable  if  he  did.  Dear  Louis 
lets  me  smoke  at  home  before  the  butler ;  but  then  our 
servants  always  have  to  know  more  or  less  about  our 
little  private  vices,  don't  they  ?  " 

"A  lady  should  be  without  vices,"  I  moralized,  se- 
verely. 

"  Oh,  of  course  ;  in  theory,"  was  the  glib  retort. 
"Ever  so  many  of  the  women  whom  I  know  smoke. 
The  other  day  I  was  so  much  amused.  You  recollect 
what  a  saintly  meek-looking  blond-haired  madonna  of 
a  creature  Mrs.  Chauncey  Crawford  is.  Well,  she  gave 
a  divine  little  dinner  to  some  bosom-intimates  last  Wed- 
nesday — just  our  set,  you  know,  without  a  single  one  of 
those  tiresome  foreign  swells  whom  she  is  so  fond  of 
entertaining.  And  it  was  such  fun  to  see  her  jump  up 
at  the  end  of  dessert  and  inform  the  men  that  we  ladies, 
having  been  too  long  trampled  upon  by  the  iron  heel  of 
male  tyranny,  had  sworn  for  one  evening  at  least  to 
break  our  bonds  and  remain  for  cigars  and  cofFee. 
Whereupon  the  men  were  served  with  their  immense 
after-dinner  srnokables — Henry  Clays,  I  believe  they 


230 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


are  called — and  we  ladies  had  the  mildest  and  loveliest 
little  affairs,  that  a  baby-in-arms  might  puff  at  with  com- 
plete impunity  ;  Henri^/ta  Clays  ought  to  be  their  name. 
It  was  so  jolly  !  " 

"It  must  have  been,"  I  commented. 

I  meant  it,  too,  in  a  certain  way.  Jolly  to  wear  one's 
womanhood  like  a  cap  tipped  jauntily  sideways  with  a 
feather  stuck  therein.  Jolly  to  make  oneself  forget  that 
life  is  life  and  sorrow  is  sorrow.  Jolly  to  dance  through 
one's  days,  following  the  reckless  philosophy  that  tells 
us  we  are  fools  if  we  don't  dash  tears,  from  the  eyes 
which  waste  time  in  shedding  them,  and  use  ou/  mouths 
to  drown  with  loudest  mirth  the  keen  clear  murmur  of 
intense  regret— a  regret  like  mine  ! — till  it  is  onty  heard 
now  and  then  in  the  pauses  of  the  merry-makings. 
Jolly  to  clutch  at  pebbles  when  there  are  no  pearls  to 
begotten.  Jolly  to  choke  "the  sob's  middle  music" 
in  our  throats  with  a  fate-challenging  laugh  that  flings 
defiance  in  the  very  teeth  of  misery.  Jolly  to  flirt,  to 
smoke,  to  ape  the  worst  phases  of  fast  demi-monde 
Parisian  life,  to  get  oneself  talked  about  wherever  one 
may  go,  to  do  the  things  that  set  wise  heads  shaking 
and  send  a  shiver  through  all  the  tranquil  soul  of  chaste 
Conventionality — "  whom,"  as  Cornelia  might  insolently 
remark,  "  our  set  only  meets  out  at  the  big  balls  and 
goes  to  see  once  a  year,  praying  that  it  won't  get  in 
when  it  does  go." 

Yes,  jolly  enough.  I  almost  wish  I  could  hurry 
along  in  this  mad  sort  of  bacchanteism.  I  have  only  to 
reach  them  a  hand  if  I  would  join  them.  They  are 
most  willing  to  admit  me,  though  they  have  shut  their 
doors  on  so  many,  not  rich  enough,  not  powerful 
enough,  not  well  enough  positioned. 

But   no ;    something    holds    me    back.     Something 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  231 

within  me  will  not  yield.  Not  very  long  ago  (the  first 
evening,  it  was,  on  which  I  met  Melville  Delano  at  the 
opera)  I  had  almost  resolved  to  do  as  these  other  women 
are  doing — women  whose  husbands  care  for  them  about 
as  much  as  mine  cares  for  me  and  whose  family  influ- 
ences have  been  similar  to  my  own.  But  the  resolve  fell 
through,  somehow.  Who  can  change  one's  nature  at 
will  ?  I  begin  to  think  that  your  real  skillful  outragers 
of  propriety  are  born,  not  made.  It  would  be  quite  an 
easy  matter  for  the  Ethiopian  or  the  leopard  to  perform 
those  little  difficulties  we  have  all  read  about,  compared 
with  the  feat  on  my  part  of  making  myself  remotely  like 
Cornelia  Walters,  in  taste,  in  character,  in  morality — or 
in  lack  of  all  three. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

jEC.  1 8. — I  was  glad  when  John  Driscoll,  meet- 
ing me  at  a  dinner  the  other  day,  asked  me  to 
dance  the  cotillon  with  him  at  the  first  Delmon- 
ico  dancing-class.  Glad  because  I  have  been  thinking 
deeply  of  late  as  to  whether,  being  still  Fuller's  wife,  I 
should  not  make  a  sort  of  last  effort  to  place  ourselves 
on  different  terms,  each  toward  each.  I  don't  mean 
anything  about  trying  to  win  his  love  ;  I  don't  know 
that  I  would  dare  tell  myself  I  meant  this,  even  were 
such  the  case.  I  merely  mean  that  our  present  relations 
together  lack  a  little  too  glaringly  everything  which  re- 
sembles congenial  intercourse.  And  possibly  I  might 
gain  some  sort  of  direct  or  indirect  aid  from  John  Dris- 
coll in  the  working  out  of  such  results.  At  least  he 
could  give  me  his  honest  opinion  as  to  whether  I  would 
meet  with  any  fresh  disheartening  rebuff.  He  has  been 
sifth  an  intimate  of  Fuller's  for  so  long  a  time  that  I  felt 
nearly  sure  he  must  have  been  made  more  or  less  of  a 
confidant  regarding  recent  dissensions.  And  yet  I  could 
not  believe  that  even  if  he  had  heard  the  most  one- 
sided statements  conceivable,  his  old-time  intimacy  with 
me,  his  clear  knowledge  of  just  what  I  am  and  what  I 
am  not,  would  do  anything  except  prevent  him  from 
taking  silent  part  against  me. 

The  dancing-class,  first  of  its  series,  was  a  really  su- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  233 

perb  entertainment.  All  the  magnificent  suite  of  Del- 
monico's  rooms  was  thrown  open  to  us.  Many  of  the 
toilettes  were  such  things  of  beauty  that  one  felt  sad 
whilst  watching  them  to  think  how  meagre  a  chance 
they  stood  of  being  joys  forever.  The  glorious  main 
ball-room,  seen  for  the  first  time  this  season,  spoke  to 
me  like  a  voice  out  of  my  careless  girlish  past.  That 
spacious  glimmering  floor ;  those  brilliant-lit  walls  ; 
those  delicious  wailing  waltzes  which  Lander  and  his 
colleagues  in  melody  give  with  such  matchless  perfec- 
tion— how  much  lighter  this  heart  had  beaten  when  I 
had  seen,  had  heard  them  last ! 

There  was  nothing  of  a  positively  conversational 
character  between  John  Driscoll  and  myself  until  we 
took  our  seats  for  the  cotillon ;  nor  did  we  get  much 
opportunity  for  talking, before  the  first  interregnum  of 
lion-dancing.  I  find  that  I  am  apt  to  be  on  the  floor 
in  nearly  every  figure,  nowadays ;  perhaps  because 
mamma  is  recognized  as  such  a  permanent  entertaining 
power. 

"Are  you  sure  that  you  will  not  take  some  ?"  he 
questioned,  a  little  solicitously,  as  I  refused  the  bouillon 
that  was  being  passed  round. 

"  Quite  sure.  Do  you  think  that  I  look  as  if  I  needed 
a  stimulant?" 

"No  ;  not  precisely  that.  And  yet,  to  be  candid,  I 
will  own  that  I  have  seen  you  looking  better." 

"  No  doubt  you  are  right.  You  mean  the  dark  rings 
round  my  eyes,  and  the  paleness.  Don't  deny  that  you 
mean  these.  Remember  there  are  such  things  as  look- 
ing-glasses. And  it  would  be*  very  odd,  surely,  if  my 
face  didn't  show  how  miserable  I  am,  for  that  matter." 

"  Miserable  ?  "  he  was  evidently  compelled  to  repeat. 
"  In  spirits  or  in  health  ?  " 


234  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  It  is  hard  to  be  one  for  any  length  of  time  without 
being  the  other.  But  I  specially  meant  in  spirits.  You 
must  know  why  this  is  so." 

He  seemed  troubled,  but  forced  a  smile.  "  Do  you 
take  me  for  omniscient  ?  " 

"  Pshaw.  You  are  very  intimate  with  Fuller.  He 
must  have  told  you  how  " — my  voice  trembled  a  trifle — 
"how  we  are  getting  on,  or  rather  not  getting  on,  to- 
gether." 

His  face  turned  right  grave  on  the  instant :  what  a 
vast  amount  of  quiet  sympathy  he  can  throw  into  those 
hazel  eyes  of  his  when  he  wishes  !  "I  am  quite  sincere 
in  telling  you  that  Fuller  has  not  once  spoken  of  these 
matters  to  me.  But  I  have  inferred  many  things.  I 
could  hardly  fail  to  draw  my  own  conclusions  from  what 
I  have  noticed." 

Then  I  returned,  in  a  slow  whisper  :  "  Fuller  and  I 
are  not  man  and  wife.  We  are  just  two  people  who  live 
in  the  same  house  and  treat  each  other  with  a  kind  of 
tolerating  civility.  I  am  sure  that  he  has  never  borne 
me  the  least  love ;  that  he  married  me  for  cold  politic 
reasons.  This  discovery  I  made  some  time  since  ;  you 
will  probably  understand  in  what  manner"  I  empha- 
sized. "  The  shock  which  it  first  cost  me  is  in  a  measure 
abated.  I  have  no  hope,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  his 
feelings  towards  me  will  ever  change  at  this  late  day— 
ever  radically  change,  I  mean.  These  are  not  the  times 
of  charms  and  love-philtres,  you  know,  "  (whilst  I  laughed 
a  little  laugh.)  "  But  I  have  thought  very  deeply  and 
very  often  upon  the  present  state  of  affairs,  and  I  have 
grown  to  believe  it  possible  that  some  slight  alteration 
for  the  better  may  be  brought  about  in  our  relations. 
Do  you  think  that  I  judge  rightly  ?  or  do  you  consider 
my  plan  worthless  ?  I  want  your  advice." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  235 

There  was  a  touch  of  vague  inoffensive  humor  about 
the  gravity  his  face  wore,  now.  "  You  see  Fuller  on 
an  average  about  twice  a  day,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  That  isn't  what  I  mean  at  all.  It  is  our  way  of  be 
having  to  each  other  when  we  do  meet." 

He  crossed  his  legs,  bringing  one  of  his  big-bowed 
low  shoes  and  a  glimpse  of  crimson-silk  stocking  into 
marked  prominence.  Then  he  began  devoting  himself 
with  studious  scrutiny  to  one  of  his  gold  waistcoat- 
buttons. 

I  sat  and  smelt  flowers.  How  little  the  people,  pass- 
ing and  re-passing,  babbling,  laughing,  flirting,  pleas- 
ure-hunting, dreamed  ,,of  what  a  solemn  topic  John 
Driscoll  and  I  had  entered  upon  the  discussion  ! 

He  was  not,  for  his  part,  at  all  a  zealous  participant 
in  the  discussion,  I  soon  had  reason  to  remark.  More 
than  once,  during  the  silent  interval  that  followed  be- 
tween us,  I  stared  impatiently  at  his  handsome  drooped 
meditative  head.  At  length  I  made  up  my  mind  to  con- 
tinue talking  until  he  himself  gave  some  dim  indication 
that  he  would  care  about  being  listened  to.  And  so  I 
re-commenced,  whilst  he  sat  the  picture  of  attention, 
lounging  in  his  chair  as  only  very  handsome  men  ought 
to  dream  of  lounging,  his  shirt-bosom  making  a  huge 
white  bulge  forward,  both  eyes  fixed  upon  one  of  his 
sheeny  shoes  and  his  hand  still  having  digital  relations 
with  the  waistcoat-button. 

"Don't  suppose,  please,  that  I've  any  wish  to  try  and 
make  Fuller  stay  from  the  club  evenings,  or  come  away 
on  my  account  earlier  than  he  comes  now.  Not  a  bit 
of  it.  Those  and  similar  actions  grow  to  be  painful  sac- 
rifices when  a  man  isn't  in  love  with  his  wife.  What  I 
want  is  something  warmer  than  this  dull  mutual  polite- 
ness, whose  monotony  wearies  one  desperately,  even  if 


236 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


it  has  no  other  unpleasing  feature.     Do  I  want  an  im 
possibility?     Remember,   I  don't  mean   anything  like 
love-making ;  let  us  call  it  love-making's  eighth  cousin. 
Only,  it  is  not  sheer  dead  indifference." 

A  burst  of  music  just  then  reminded  me  with  some 
little  force  that  the  ball-room  at  Delmonico's  was  not 
solely  designed,  that  evening,  for  my  own  and  John 
Driscoll's  convenience.  Everywhere  about  us  the  co- 
tillon had  re-formed  itself.  We  were  among  the  first  four 
or  five  couples  and  therefore  must  dance  as  soon  as  the 
leader  called  upon  us.  Which  the  leader  almost  im- 
mediately did,  by  the  bye,  with  that  indestructible  suav- 
ity that  makes  Willie  Gregory  a  complete  prince  of  co- 
tillon-managers. 

Leaving  my  question  still  unanswered,  John  Driscoll 
rose  with  me  and  began  his  easy  delightful  Boston  that 
I  suppose  I  couldn't  help  finding  enjoyable  if  I  were  due 
at  my  own  execution  five  minutes  afterward.  Our  little 
turn  finished,  he  left  me  in  silence.  I  had  begun  to  feel 
considerably  piqued,  by  this  time,  and  rather  lost  my 
head  in  selecting  a  partner  for  the  forming  figure  :  it  was 
only  after  irrevocably  taking  out  that  little  Bartholomew 
man  that  I  remembered  what  dire  discomfort  as  a  part- 
ner he  had  caused  me  before  now.  Through  the  figure 
went  little  Bartholomew  and  I ;  then  came  the  ordeal  of 
dancing  with  him  ;  then  at  last  came  the  blessed  privi- 
lege of  seating  oneself. 

John  Driscoll  was  already  in  his  chair  when  I  sat  down 
beside  him.  I  let  him  look  amiable  and  remain  speech- 
less for  a  little  while,  and  then  I  spoke,  with  sharp  pet- 
ulance. 

"  I  asked  you  a  question  some  time  ago.  I  trust 
you're  going  to  have  the  manners  to  answer  it." 

Just  then  up  floated  Aleck  Sheffield  and  held  out  a 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


237 


hand  to  me.  I  did  not  rise  on  the  instant  but  gave  him 
my  own  hand  whilst  turning  eagerly  toward  John  Dris- 
coll  ;  for  he  had  begun,  in  a  low  slow  way,  to  favor  me 
with  his  answer  : 

"  I  must  tell  you  that  I  do  not  think  you  can  change 
matters  at  all  to  your  satisfaction.  I  advise  you  to  let 
well  alone." 

"  Your  Boston  is  the  most  delicious  thing  I  know  of," 
Aleck  Sheffield  was  murmuring  in  my  ear,  presently. 

"Thanks,"  I  laughed.  And  the  laugh  seemed  to 
come  right  from  the  central  pang  of  a  heartache. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

|EC.  20. — I  have  been  thinking  over  the  advice 
John  Driscoll  gave  me.  It  springs  as  much 
from  the  man  of  the  world  as  from  the  friend  of 
Fuller  Dobell.  He  is  right.  There  should  be  love  or 
there  should  be  nothing ;  I  was  a  fool  to  think  other- 
wise. 

How  strange  that  Fuller's  invariable  coldness  does 
not  alienate  me  from  him  !  There  are  times  when  my 
spirit  seems  to  start  up  with  clenched  hands  and  cry : 
"  I  will  hate  him  !  "  A  sort  of  resolve  follows,  usually 
forgotten  two  hours  afterward.  Surely  there  is  nothing 
beautiful,  nothing  honor-worthy  in  a  love  such  as  mine. 
It  is  like  a  slave  smiling  in  the  face  of  a  brutal  master ; 
like  a  dog  licking  the  hand  that  has  beaten  it — like  any- 
thing which  is  the  simile  of  undignified  and  contempti- 
ble humility. 

Well,  I  have  one  satisfaction,  if  it  can  be  called  that. 
He  does  not  dream  that  I  am  «^  wholly  alienated.  He 
must  believe  that  I  do  not  care  a  fig,  now,  for  his  affec- 
tion or  his  lack  of  it. 

— Fool  that  I  am  !  Only  a  few  weeks  have  elapsed 
since  I  wore  my  heart  on  my  sleeve  before  him  as  we 
drove  to  the  Park,  just  previous  to  that  miserable  meet- 
ing. Had  he  not  the  opportunity  then  of  snubbing  me 
shamelessly,  and  did  he  not  use  it  with  unpitying 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  239 

promptitude?  "  If  you  care  to  win  back*  whatever  is 
lost,  Fuller,  you  must  see  that  the  means  of  doing  so 
are  not  difficult."  Those  were  my  words ;  and  how  did 
he  answer  them  ?  By  that  horrible  horsey  order  to 
John. 

4  Whom  the  gods  hate  they  first  make  mad/  What 
celestial  prejudices  I  must  be  the  object  of !  A  March 
hare  or  any  other  recognized  symbol  of  insanity  is  a  light 
of  reason  compared  with  me.  To  care  for  him  now  is 
sheerest  craziness,  beyond  any  doubt.  But  fortunately 
all  mental  maladies  are  not  incurable.  Some  day  the 
tie  may  weaken  and  snap,  leaving  me  blessedly  emanci- 
pated. And  yet  I  have  already  written  in  these  pages 
that  nothing  can  ever  change  my  love.  Perhaps  I  was 
right ;  and  I  frame  the  sentence  with  bitterest  dread  ; 
for  to  love  him  has  verily  grown  my  curse. 

Dec.  22. — "If you've  no  other  engagement,  Helen, 
be  good  enough  to  give  yourself  bodily  up  to  me  for 
the  morning." 

Miss  Margie  Cartwright  was  responsible  for  this  re- 
mark, having  dropped  in  at  about  eleven  o'clock  to- 
day. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  me,  Margie?"  I 
asked. 

11  I  am  going  to  take  you  shopping.  Mamma  at  last 
has  given  her  consent  for  me  to  get  an  India  shawl — 
one  of  those  pretty  little  square  ones,  you  know,  and  I 
want  you  to  come  and  select  something  that  is  decent 
as  well  as  cheap."  It  is  a  pet  foible  of  Margie's  to  talk 
like  a  pauper.  She  makes  the  same  parade  of  her  pov- 
erty that  some  people  do  of  their  wealth.  She  is  proud 
of  it,  indeed,  with  a  kind  of  queer  left-handed  ostenta- 
tion that  is  funny  from  its  pure  originality  ;  just  as 
though  a  peacock  which  had  been  despoiled  of  all  but 


240 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


a  single  caudal   feather,  should  solemnly  lift  that  and 
strut  about  with  it,  in  unabashed  importance. 

•  "  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  do  what  I  can,"  I  consented, 
after  a  moment's  reflection  as  to  whether  the  getting  on 
my  bonnet  and  the  walking  out  would  be  an  exertion  at 
all  worth  the  making  :  a  sort  of  sensation,  by  the  bye, 
which  has  only  come  upon  me  of  late  and  which  I  can- 
not find  it  difficult  to  account  for. 

Margie's  shopping  lasted  precisely  three  hours.  An 
infinite  amount  of  vacillation  among  five  or  six  different 
shawls  finally  reduced  itself  to  a  steady  vibration  be- 
tween two — one  pretty  and  very  cheap,  the  other  cheap 
and  very  pretty.  Provided  I  once  received  the  whis- 
pered intelligence  that ''mamma  would  be  furious  if, 
etc.,"  there  is  no  doubt  that  I  received  it  at  least  fifteen 
detached  times.  Finally  I  got  a  little  irritable  over  a 
round  statement  which  Margie  made  the  clerk  who 
waited  upon  us,  to  the  effect  that  she  was  '  one  of  those 
people,  you  know,  with  whom  every  dollar,  more  or 
less,  told  decidedly." 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  Margie,"  I  rebuked,  in  a  rather 
.excited  aside,  "  pray  make  your  purchases  without 
giving  the  clerk  too  perfect  an  idea  of  your  income  per 
annum." 

Looking  quite  a  great  deal  hurt,  Miss  Cartwright  fol- 
lowed my  advice,  taking  the  shawl  that  was  cheap  and 
very  pretty,  and  affording  me  the  sort  of  relief  which  is 
only  expressible  in  a  huge  sigh  of  gratitude.  Margie 
isn't  of  at  all  a  sullen  disposition,  however,  and  her 
annoyance  was  over  almost  before  we  had  left  the  store. 

"  Do  you  know/'  I  presently  asked,  "  that  it  is  after 
two  o'clock  ?  " 

".And  I'm  so  desperately  hungry,"  Margie  returned. 
"Aren't  you?" 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


241 


"  I  feel  as  if  I  wanted  my  lunch.  Suppose  we  go  in 
here  and  get  some." 

I  said  it  more  than  half  jestingly,  whilst  we  were 
passing  the  Fourteenth  Street  Delmonico's,  and  antici- 
pated a  prudish  little  scream  from  Margie,  or  some 
similar  mark  of  dainty  horror.  Instead  of  this,  how- 
ever, there  was  merely  : 

"  Oh,  Helen,  it  is  so  fast  for  ladies  to  go  in  any  res- 
taurant ;  don't  you  think  so  ?  " 

"  I've  heard  people  say  so,  Margie,  and  I  suppose  it 
is.  But  if  one  were  very  hungry  one  couldn't  help 
feeling  that  the  impropriety  was  materially  lessened. 
Think  of  it :  sometimes  people  eat  each  other,  when 
they  are  famishing,  and  it  isn't  considered  murder, 
you  know." 

"But  we're  not  in  any  such  cannibalistic  state," 
laughed  Margie;  "and  we're  so  near  each  of  our 
homes." 

By  this  time  I  had  gotten  to  feel  a  certain  amount  of 
evil  pride  in  the  result  of  my  temptations.  "  Pshaw," 
I  generalized,  "  nobody  can  denounce  it  as  precisely 
criminal  in  a  married  woman  and  a  young  girl.  The 
most  they  can  say  is  that  it  isn't  especially  swell."  ' 

"  It  would  be  such  a  lovely  spree,"  half-yielded  Mar- 
gie. "  But  now  I  recollect,  mamma  once  told  me — " 

I  didn't  wait  for  the  valuable  intelligence  which 
mamma  had  no  doubt  imparted,  but  walked  toward  the 
Fourteenth  Street  entrance,  (I  suppose  it  would  be 
simply  amazonian  to  go  in  by  the  Fifth  Avenue  one) 
confidently  expecting  that  Margie  would  follow  me. 
And  she  was  presently  at  my  side,  making  not  a  few 
low-voiced  fluttering  protestations  which  I  feigned  that 
I  didn't  hear. 

We  entered  the  salon  and  selected  a  seat  well  re- 
11 


242 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


moved  from  any  window.  A  very  courteous  waiter 
came  promptly  forward,  handed  me  a  carte  and  dis- 
appeared. "  What  are  you  going  to  take?"  I  wanted 
to  know,  glancing  Margieward  across  the  table  ;  but  as 
my  eyes  made  this  little  journey  they  fell  upon  the  face 
of  some  one  who  was  directly  behind  Margie.  There 
she  sat,  in  all  her  serene  superb  loveliness — the  woman 
because  of  whom  I  have  suffered  so  bitterly  ! 

"  I  haven't  any  preference  for  anything,"  stated 
Margie.  "  Pray  order  what  you  think  best,  and  I  shall 
fervently  try  to  do  it  justice." 

"  Omelette  aux  tomates,"  I  began  to  read,  murmur- 
ously,  having  just  the  minutest  idea  what  words  my  lips 
were  pronouncing,  "  chicken  croquettes  a  la  maitre 
d'hotel,  cotelettes  a  1'italienne — " 

"  Don't,  for  Heaven's  sake,"  interposed  Margie. 
"  Do  you  know,  Helen,  I  think  we  ought  to  get  rice  or 
hominy  or  something  very  plain — as  if  we  were  miles 
away  from  home  and  nearly  starving.  It  is  so  sort  of — 
of  demi-mondish,  don't  you  know,  to  come  here  and 
take  these  French  dishes." 

I  glanced  up  from  the  carte  for  a  second,  fascinated 
by  a  desire  to  see  whether  that  woman  was  still  looking 
at  me.  Yes  ;  those  marvellous  light-lashed  eyes,  colored 
so  that  Swinburne  might  have  admitted  them  to  be  "the 
greenest  of  things  blue,  the  bluest  of  things  gray,"  like 
the  eyes  of  his  own  Felise,  were  fixed  with  unwavering 
steadfastness  upon  my  face.  About  her  ripe-lipped 
rosebud  sort  of  mouth  played  a  smile  delicately  inso- 
lent. She  was  not  eating  ;  she  had  apparently  but  just 
entered  the  salon  and  had  not  yet  been  served.  My 
rapid  glance  told  me  these  things.  Her  sneering  smile 
drew  the  color  to  my  cheeks  almost  instantly.  I  sup- 
pose Margie  would  have  noticed  this  at  once  if  I  had 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  243 

not  begun  giving  a  reckless  kind  of  order  to  the  waiter, 
who  just  then  appeared  with  ice  for  our  goblets. 

"  Helen,  aren't  you  ordering  a  great  deal  too  much?" 
inquired  Margie,  with  anxious  astonishment,  after  listen- 
ing to  several  items. 

I  gave  an  excited  little  laugh.  It  was  so  hard  to  be 
natural,  knowing  how  those  two  cold  critics  of  eyes 
were  levelling  their  fullest  scrutiny  at  me.  "  Am  I, 
Margie  ?  Well,"  (to  the  waiter)  "  that  will  do,  then." 

The  man  bowed  with  meditative  courtesy,  evidently 
committing  my  order  to  his  practised  memory  whilst  he 
did  so.  Just  then  a  voice  came  from  the  opposite  ta- 
ble, commandingly  loud,  and  yet  refined,  musical, 
through  and  through  the  voice  of  a  lady. 

"  Waiter." 

"Yes,  madame." 

"  I  have  been  here  some  time  before  these  two  ladies, 
and  am  entitled  to  be  served  before  they  are,  on  that 
account.  Do  you  not  agree  with  me  ?  " 

"  Yes,  madame.  It  was  somme  meestek."  Th^ 
waiter  looked  apologetic  to  his  finger-tips.  "  I  will 
send  somebody  at  once." 

Two  o'clock  is  not  an  hour,  I  suppose,  when  there 
are  many  people  to  be  found  in  the  salon  at  Delmon- 
ico's.  A  glance  about  the  room  satisfied  me  that  there 
were  very  few  people  there  now.  I  could  not  but  feel 
certain  that  she  had  spoken  merely  from  motives  of  rude 
bravado,  as  one  who  had  nothing  to  lose  by  making 
herself  stared  at,  and  could  render  me  uncomfortable 
for  this  very  reason.  Yes,  such  must  have  been  her 
aim,  I  rapidly  concluded  :  the  insolent  smile  had  served 
as  mere  prelude  to  her  present  behavior.  My  best 
course  was  quietly  to  ignore  her  demonstrations.  They 
sprang  from  a  kind  of  baffled  hate,  I  could  not  doubt. 


244  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

To  this  woman  I  was  the  wife  for  whom  Fuller  had  in- 
alienably deserted  her  ;  she  did  not  know,  possibly, 
that  our  wedded  bliss  was  not  of  the  most  perfect,  by 
this  time.  Illicitly,  shamefully,  in  whatever  way  the 
world  chooses  to  consider  it,  she  had  once  held  him  ;  I 
had  stolen  him  away  from  her  and  bolted  him  up  tight 
with  the  double  fastening  of  matrimony  and  propriety. 
I  was  therefore  fair  game  in  her  eyes  for  whatever  mis- 
sile she  could  hurl  at  me. 

It  was  all  very  well  for  me  to  look  here,  there,  any- 
where, and  seem  to  treat  the  matter  as  one  which  con- 
cerned the  waiters,  not  myself.  Had  I  been  alone,  this 
course  might  have  had  a  somewhat  arrow-blunting 
effect.  But  Margie,  whose  back  was  opposite  the 
speaker,  made  rather  rude  work  of  nearly  revolving  in 
her  chair  for  the  evident  purpose  of  getting  a  good 
glimpse.  Her  stare  resulted  in  an  impulsive  turn  to- 
ward the  waiter.  "We  are  really  quite  sorry,"  she 
hurried,  "  to  have  been  the  means  of  annoying  that 
lady."  Then  to  me  :  "  My  dear  Helen,  it  was  disagree- 
able, I've  no  doubt.  You  see,  she  must  have  been 
waiting  some  time  before  we  came  in."  Margie's  eyes 
were  sparkling  with  discovery.  She  was  telling  her- 
self, I  could  clearly  perceive,  that  she  had  just  seen  a 
charming  creature,  charmingly  dressed  ;  no  self-assert- 
ing vulgarian,  but  an  offended  lady  who  had  had  the 
spirit  and  dignity  to  resent  culpable  neglect  on  the 
waiter's  part. 

My  featureless  sort  of  gravity  she  took,  doubtless,  for 
lack  of  sympathetic  feeling.  If  Margie  had  merely 
fancied  herself  the  indirect  means  of  annoying  a  fellow- 
creature,  she  would  scarcely  have  been  disturbed,  I 
fancy,  by  the  ghost  of  a  conscience-twinge.  But  here 
was  a  person  who  could  absolutely  afford  to  set  the  im- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


245 


mense  moral  disadvantage  of  never  having  been  seen 
anywhere  against  the  irreproachable  good-style  of  her 
whole  appearance.  Margie  was  flattering  herself  that 
she  knew  a  lady  when  she  saw  one  ;  I  had  felt  in  a 
mood  of  similar  benevolence  toward  my  own  detective 
powers,  on  that  hotel-piazza,  last  autumn,  and  could 
now  understand  her  sensations  perfectly.  With  me 
there  had  been,  however,  the  damning  influence  of  Mel- 
ville Delano's  behavior;  with  her  there  was  nothing  of 
this  powerful  kind. 

I  daresay  that  my  sober  manner  piqued  Margie,  who 
took  it  for  indifference,  if  not  the  desire  to  inflict  a 
slight  snubbing.  She  is  a  self-willed  little  body  at 
times,  with  at  times  a  touch  of  real  temper.  Doubtless 
because  she  believed  that  I  had  already  judged  her  con- 
duct to  be  too  loud  and  demonstrative,  she  determined 
now  to  show  me  how  positively  we  disagreed  upon  this 
point.  And  so,  half  rising  from  her  chair  and  turning 
herself  wholly  round,  she  began  to  address  that  creature. 

"  We  are  very  sorry  indeed  to  have  been  the  means 
of—" 

"  Margie  !  "  my  hand  fell  graspingly  on  her  arm  as  I 
leaned  across  the  table  ;  her  name  left  my  lips  with  a 
kind  of  vetoing  emphasis,  very  imperative  and  sharp. 

A  word  can  say  volumes,  sometimes,  dreary  a  truism 
as  it  seems  to  state  this.  Margie  turned  toward  me 
again,  read  it  all  in  my  face  (quick-witted  vixen  that  she 
is)  and  reseated  herself  suddenly,  bumpingly  and  ridicu- 
lously. 

Alone,  as  it  were,  I  was  left  to  face  the  foe.  Of 
course  I  had  made  an  unexampled  fool  of  myself,  acting 
from  hot  impulse,  never  pausing  a  second  to  consider 
the  pure  folly  of  my  course.  But  now  it  was  too  late 
for  repentance  to  advantage  anything.  There  the  foe 


246  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

was,  having  risen  from  her  seat,  glaring  at  me  with 
haughtiest  fury.  I  myself  sat  down,  then,  pale  and 
frightened.  The  waiter  stood  and  stared.  This  creat- 
ure had  me  thoroughly  at  her  mercy  ;  all  that  I  could 
do  was  to  trust  that  her  wrath  would  not  take  the  form 
of  speech. 

But  I  leaned  upon  a  broken  reed.  She  spoke  almost 
instantly,  and  in  tones  high  from  rage  yet  filled  with  a 
rich  quivering  harmony.  Every  word  was  flung  straight 
at  me. 

11  You  are  quite  right.  Keep  your  friend  from  the 
deep  injury  of  exchanging  a  sentence  with  myself.  / 
have  the  misfortune  to  be  immoral  under  less  pleasant 
circumstances  than  you.  Mrs.  Fuller  Dobell  can  commit 
indiscretions  without  greatly  shocking  society,  but 
everybody  isn't  as  luckily  placed,  perhaps.  What  is  a 
crime  in  me,  becomes  in  you  only — " 

I  did  not  hear  another  word  ;  for  by  this  time  I  had 
started  up  and  was  calling  out  to  Margie,  "  Come,  come, 
for  Heaven's  sake  !  "  whilst  I  made  fleetest  exit  from 
the  place. 

I  did  not  know  until  I  had  gone  nearly  a  block  that 
Margie  had  joined  me  and  was  asking  excited  questions. 
"  Helen,  Helen,  why  will  you  not  answer  ?  "  „ 

"  What,  Margie  ?  "  I  waked  up. 

"Why,  who  is  that  person?  Tell  me  all  that  you 
know  about  her." 

I  reflected  for  a  moment,  then  lied.  "  I  know  noth- 
ing, Margie,  except  that  she's  improper." 

My  voice  had  betrayed  me.  Margie  had  heard  the 
story  of  the  Park  adventure,  and  is  capable  of  using  that 
shrewdness  popularly  known  as  an  ability  to  put  two 
and  two  together.  Whilst  we  walked  on  in  silence  I 
concluded  that  this  numerical  feat  was  being  performed. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  247 

"  But  it's  so  strange,"  was  Margie's  single  comment 
on  the  occurrence,  after  I  had  spoken  and  shown  her 
my  secret.  "  I  should  never  have  addressed  her  if  I'd 
dreamed  about  it,  you  know.  As  far  as  appearance 
goes  she  doesn't  look  as  if  butter  possibly  could  melt  in 
her  mouth." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

[EC.  23. — I  have  not  mentioned  to  mamma,  of 
course,  and  of  course  I  have  not  mentioned  to 
Fuller,  what  occurred  yesterday.  Margie  Cart- 
wright,  too,  has  made  me  a  solemn  promise  that  she  will 
consider  it  a  secret  between  us ;  and  Margie  will  keep 
her  word. 

That  woman's  headlong  audacity  has  agitated  me 
more  lastingly  than  I  had  believed  it  would  do.  I  kept 
seeing  her  beautiful  scornful  face  all  last  night,  and  hear- 
ing her  sweet  rich  angered  voice  casting  every  sort  of 
impertinence  at  me.  I  have  a  morbid  curiosity  to  learn 
whether  she  truly  considers  that  I  am  immoral.  Was 
that  statement  of  hers  regarding  Mrs.  Fuller  Dobell's 
indiscretions  even  vaguely  connected  with  any  remnant 
of  report  that  may  have  reached  her  ears  ?  I  cannot 
believe  that  it  was.  I  must  believe  it  a  matter  of  furi- 
ous fiction,  having  sprung  purely  from  her  own  mali- 
cious desire  to  insult. 

I  daresay  that  her  rage  would  not  have  run  away  with 
her  prudence  so  absolutely,  if  it  were  not  for  the  separa- 
tion now  existing  between  herself  and  Fuller.  I  have 
torn  him  from  her  possession  and  she  hates  me  with  a 
reason.  I  am  possibly  a  perpetual  thorn  in  her  side. 
What  keen  delight  she  would  have  felt,  had  we  both 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  249 

lived  a  few  centuries  ago,  in  negotiating  with  a  skilled 
toxicologist  relative  to  my  taking-off.  Sex  and  sur- 
roundings both  stand  materially  in  the  way  of  my  sym- 
pathizing with  her,  or  even  rinding  the  dimmest  proba- 
ble excuse  for  her  present  life  :  I  fear  that  I  am  an  un- 
alterable martinet  about  this  sort  of  things.  However, 
there  is  just  a  chance  that  some  frightful  tornado  of 
temptation,  not  realizable  to  me  who  am  of  another 
social  clime  altogether,  may  have  swept  her  away  with 
it.  And  then  that  faultless  dressing — that  lovely  voice 
— that  cultured  English — if  she  picked  them  all  up  with 
the  collective  tact  of  an  adventuress  one  cannot  but  ad- 
mit the  deep-lying  refinement  underneath  such  tact ; 
but  if  she  were  born  to  them  all — then  God  help  her, 
one  ought  to  pity  her  !  In  spite  of  my  martinetism  I 
clearly  recall  certain  big  tears  during  clandestine  feasts 
upon  La  Dame  aux  camellias. 

Perhaps  my  grasp  of  Margie's  arm  and  the  "propri- 
ety, prunes  and  prism  "  in  my,  face,  stabbed  her  with 
intense  sharpness,  not  merely  wounding  because  of  her 
jealous  hatred,  but  for  other  reasons  as  well.  She 
could  not  have  gained  any  powerful  hold  upon  a  man 
of  Fuller's  cultured  tastes,  I  should  suppose,  if  she  were 
greatly  touched  with  coarseness  ;  and  it  may  be  that  she 
has  lost  nothing  of  the  sensitive  pride  that  often  goes 
with  innocence.  There  was  something  in  the  reckless- 
ness of  her  rage  (provided  it  was  this,  and  not  mere 
cold-blooded  insolence)  that  rouses  a  sort  of  admiration 
in  me  whenever  I  think  of  it. 

Can  it  be  that  she  loves  Fuller  ?  If  so,  there  would 
be  no  use  in  trying  not  to  pity  her  :  she  amply  deserves 
pity.  I  had  always  believed  this  sort  of  woman,  outside 
of  unwholesome  French  novels  and  plays,  to  be  a  mere 
money-spending  automaton, 
11* 


250  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  A  love-machine, 
With  clock-work  joints  of  supple  gold," 

such  as  we  are  told  that  the  magnificently  sinful  Faus- 
tina has  become,  of  late  centuries.  But  there  is  a 
chance  that  I  am  wrong ;  surely  she  has  the  face  for  a 
fallen  angel,  throwing  a  fallen  woman  completely  out  of 
the  question. 

Let  me  put  a  supposititious  case,  in  this  wise  : 

Say  that  she  loves  Fuller  passionately.  Say  that  she 
knows  him  passionately  to  love  her  in  return.  Say  that 
because  he  needs  money  and  she  has  none  to  give  him, 
she  has  consented,  after  great  struggle,  to  his  marriage 
with  me.  Say  that  my  requirement  from  Fuller  builds 
a  sudden  inseparable  barrier  between  them.  Then,  say- 
ing all  this  to  be  true,  is  she  not  worthy  of  something 
like  pity  ?  Indeed,  yes  ! 

Not  he,  however.  He  deserves  no  vestige  of  pity. 
If  my  case  were  really  a  true  case,  I  should  no  doubt 
find  myself  bitterly  exultant  over  the  thought  that  his 
promise  binds  him  from  being  near  her  ever  again. 

Well,  if  he  suffers  in  keeping  the  promise,  that  is  my 
revenge.  He  is  keeping  it,  will  keep  it,  I  am  certain. 
If  I  dreamed  otherwise — But  pshaw  !  my  imagination 
has  worn  wings  quite  long  enough,  for  the  present. 
And  matters  are  bad  enough  as  they  are,  Heaven 
knows.  It  is  of  course  silly  policy  that  I  should  gravely 
set  myself  to  the  task  of  imagining  them  far  worse. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

(EC.    28. — Something   occurred,    to-day,    which 
has  strangely  startled  me. 

It  began  at  dinner.  Fuller  came  in  a  little 
late,  and  was  rather  talkative  after  taking  his  seat ; 
vinously  so,  I  could  not  help  suspecting.  As  is  usually 
the  case,  a  good  three-fourths  of  his  conversation  was 
pointed  at  mamma.  No  doubt  I  was  wretchedly  out  of 
sorts,  to  begin  with.  Anyhow,  I  felt  myself  getting  more 
and  more  irritable,  by  silent  degrees,  as  Fuller  and  mamma 
laughed  and  chatted  the  more,  became  the  more  inter- 
ested in  each  other's  society.  Their  subjects  of  discus- 
sion were  purely  composed  of  gossipy  trifles — how  A,  B 
and  C  had  done  or  said  this,  that  and  the  other.  Mamma 
gave  closest  heed  to  her  son-in-law's  fluent  personali- 
ties ;  perhaps  because  they  mostly  dealt  with  notable 
people,  in  whose  sins,  peccadillos  and  mistakes  she  felt 
a  sort  of  sisterly  concern.  Without  specially  caring  to 
sound  my  own  trumpet,  I  can't  help  feeling  that  I  have 
heretofore  behaved  with  some  slight  patience  and  self- 
government  when,  on  occasions  like  the  present,  my 
existence  has  been  so  coolly  overlooked,  in  a  social 
sense,  by  the  rest  of  the  dinner-table.  But  to-day  I  was 
cross  and  ugly,  and  ached,  moreover,  to  give  them  both 
a  pronounced  hint  of  my  condition.  Fuller  happened 
at  last  to  touch  upon  Charley  Bertram,  who  is  getting 


252  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

to  be  quite  an  intimate  of  his,  I  fancy.     With  the  cor 
ners  of  my  eyes,  I  saw  them  lounging  most  fraternally, 
yesterday,  in  the  club-window.     Now  Charley  Bertram 
is  one  of  my  abominations.     Accordingly  I  saw  fit  to 
make  this  fact  the  base  of  a  little  harangue. 

"  Charley  Bertram  bestowed  some  of  his  precious  po- 
liteness upon  myself,  last  evening,  at  the  Merediths'," 
I  set  forth,  whilst  mamma  and  Fuller  both  turned  sur- 
prised eyes  upon  me.  <(  How  long  since  he  has  gotten 
back  from  England,  by  the  bye?  And,  poor  fellow, 
why  has  he  ever  gotten  back  at  all  ?  If  it's  a  question 
of  his  not  having  money  enough  to  remain,  I  do  think 
that  he  is  a  most  deserving  object  for  some  rich  friend's 
charity.  After  years  of  patient  study  how  to  talk,  walk, 
dress,  laugh  and  breathe  like  an  Englishman,  it  truly 
seems  hard  that  he  should  be  forced  to  live  among  such 
savages  as  Americans." 

"  Charley  is  a  very  nice  fellow,"  stated  Fuller,  a  little 
sharply.  "  Has  his  faults,  perhaps,  but  is  a  thorough 
gentleman." 

"  We  don't  harmonize  on  that  point,"  I  returned. 
"But  perhaps  the  majority  of  Americans  are  not  cul- 
tured up  to  his  fine  foreign  standard  of  breeding,  and 
are  therefore  not  the  best  of  judges." 

"Very  possibly  you're  right,"  muttered  Fuller,  with 
a  fair  amount  of  ill-humor. 

"  Pray  recollect,  Helen,"  mamma  saw  fit  to  rebuke, 
"that  it  is  far  easier  to  satirize  people  than  justly  to 
praise  them." 

Fuller  spied  his  little  niche  of  opportunity  and  jumped 
into  it.  "  Helen  seems  to  be  of  a  very  different  opinion 
from  that.  Anybody  can  flourish  a  bludgeon  ;  but  to 
use  the  scalpel  requires  a  trifle  more  skill.  She  infers 
that  Charley  Bertram  is  ungentlemanly ;  and  yet  I 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  253 

challenge  her  to  recollect  a  single  occasion  within  her 
own  experience  when  she  has  been  called  upon  to 
observe  a  trace  of  bad  breeding  in  him." 

I  took  two  or  three  quick  sips  of  coffee.  "  One  need 
only  to  repeat  one's  former  statement.  We  benighted 
Americans  are  possibly  no  judges  of  what  is  proper 
breeding  and  what  is  not.  For  example,  when  I  saw 
him  at  about  two  o'clock,  the  other  Sunday  morning, 
being  driven,  with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  up  Fifth  Avenue 
in  Carroll  Montgomery's  dog-cart,  I  was  doubtless  laying 
myself  open  to  keen  ridicule  by  venturing  to  consider 
the  action  at  all  unbecoming." 

' '  Are  you  aware  that  I  was  in  that  party  of  which 
you  speak  ?  " 

"  Perfectly  aware.  I  saw  you  from  the  window  of 
the  reception-room.  I  could  not  help  but  feel  relieved 
when  I  discovered  that  you  were  not  smoking." 

He  made  a  shoulder-shrug  and  a  sneer  very  in- 
timately associate  with  each  other.  "  I  had  just  thrown 
away  my  cigar.  I  lighted  another  almost  immediately. " 

"  Under  Mr.  Bertram's  advice,  I  suppose.  His 
countenance  of  the  impropriety  no  doubt  gave  it  a 
certain  caste." 

I  saw  Fuller's  eyes  sparkle  faintly  ;  a  sure  sign,  with 
him,  that  his  temper  is  going,  slow  as  he  usually  is  to 
lose  it.  "  A  person  who  is  so  particular  about  propriety 
of  behavior,"  he  rapidly  returned,  "should  herself  be 
more  guarded,  now  and  then.  It  is  thought  fast,  for 
instance,  if  a  lady  lunches  at  Delmonico's  in  the  morning, 
unattended  by  any  gentleman." 

Luckily  dessert  had  been  placed  upon  the  table  and 
Henry  had  recently  left  the  dining-room.  I  should  not 
have  liked  him  to  see  me,  after  Fuller  had  spoken. 
First  I  flushed  hotly  ;  then  all  the  blood  died  away  from 


254 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


my  face,  leaving  coldness  in  its  track,  like  a  breath  of 
air  blowing  against  my  cheeks  and  forehead.  I  fixed 
my  eyes  on  Fuller's  face  and  let  them  stay  there. 

"Who  told  you  that  I  was  at  Delmonico's  ? "  I 
questioned,  with  hard-voiced  calmness. 

The  unsheathing  of  a  banana  seemed  so  deeply  to 
absorb  him  that  I  could  not  get  his  attention,  somehow  ; 
at  least  he  would  not  look  at  me,  would  not  answer  my 
question. 

"  It  could  hardly  have  been  Margie  Cartwright,"  I 
went  on,  with  a  ringing  stress  on  every  word  ;  "for 
Margie  is  a  very  truthful  girl,  no  matter  what  other 
faults  she  may  have,  and  she  faithfully  promised  me 
that  she  would  not  mention  the  occurrence." 

"Dear  me,  Helen,"  put  in  mamma,  with  stately 
amiability,  "it  wasn't  quite  like  robbing  the  treasury, 
you  know.  For  my  own  part,  I  rather  disagree  with 
Fuller  in  even  considering  it  more  than  merely — let  us 
coin  a  word — fastish.  Had  you  and  Margie  both  been 
unmarried  I  should  have  liked  the  proceeding  much  less, 
as  a  matter  of  course." 

Then  my  eyes  left  Fuller's  face,  but  only  for  a  second, 
sweeping  mamma's.  "  It  was  not  on  account  of  pro- 
priety or  impropriety  that  I  made  Margie  promise.  It 
was  for  another  reason."  My  eyes  were  back  upon 
Fuller,  now.  "  I  wonder  if  Fuller  knows  that  reason." 

He  met  my  look  coldly,  at  this.  "  Margie  Cartwright 
did  not  tell  me,"  he  stated. 

"  Then  who  did  tell  you  ?  "  I  wanted  to  know,  husk- 
ily, with  gathering  brows. 

"  I  do  not  like  your  manner,"  he  bristled,  roughly  dig- 
nified. "When  people  require  questions  answered  they 
are  apt  to  be  more  politic  in  their  style  of  framing  them." 

"Answer   or    not,  just   as   you  please,"  I    retorted, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2$$ 

loudly  careless.  "  If  you  do  not  answer  I  can  draw  my 
own  conclusions." 

I  was  watching  him  narrowly,  in  spite  of  assumed 
unconcern.  Nothing  that  I  saw  upon  his  face  had  pre- 
cisely satisfied  me  when  he  responded  : 

"  I  daresay  you  can  draw  your  own  conclusions.  I 
hope  they  will  be  sensible  ones,  showing  proper  consid- 
eration for  the  fact  that  Fifth  Avenue  and  Fourteenth 
Street  are  thoroughfares  in  which  passers  are  occasion- 
ally seen  and  that  Delmonico's  is  a  place  now  and  then 
patronized  by  some  few  occupants." 

"  I  will  admit  that  someone  may  have  observed  me 
enter  ;  but  there  was  nobody  in  the  salon  whom  you  are 
at  all  likely  to  have  known,  except—  Hesitating  here, 
I  cannot  tell  what  I  should  have  added ;  probably  I 
should  have  called  a  spade  a  spade  with  boldest  freedom. 
As  it  was,  Fuller  took  occasion  to  speak  and  so  leave 
my  sentence  incomplete. 

' 'You  do  not  deserve,  after  your  incivility,  to  hear 
that  John  Driscoll  saw  you  enter  the  restaurant.  How- 
ever, there  is  the  fact,  and  you  may  make  what  you 
choose  of  it." 

Whilst  finishing  that  last  sentence  he  rose  from  the 
table.  I  can't  explain  the  impulse  of  doubt  that 
instantly  seized  upon  me  as  he  was  passing  from  the 
room.  His  manner  had  been  plausible  enough,  and 
yet  there  was  a  touch  of  conciliation  about  it,  a  sudden- 
ness of  change  from  haughty  annoyance  to  grim  con- 
cession, tormenting  me  with  the  belief  that  a  certain 
purpose  was  at  the  root  of  his  recent  statement.  The 
purpose,  I  mean,  of  deceiving  me — lying  to  me — 
making  me  believe  that  John  Driscoll  had  told  him 
when  John  Driscoll  had  not  told  him.  When  "  Edith  " 
had  told  him. 


256  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

There  was  no  use  in  trying  to  banish  suspicion  from  my 
mind,  now — in  telling  myself  I  doubted  unjustly  and 
for  little  cause.  I  had  told  myself  that  before,  and 
what  sorry  comfort  had  resulted  from  such  gingerly 
slowness  to  admit  that  guilt  was  guilt  ! 

I  felt  nearly  consumed  with  a  desire  to  see  John 
Driscoll  before  Fuller  should  see  him.  At  half-past  ten 
we  were  going  to  a  ball  at  the  Gregorys' — mamma, 
myself  and  very  probably  Fuller,  though  his  departures 
and  returns  have  grown  to  be  matters  concerning  which 
is  observed  a  most  questionless  household  quiet.  If  he 
went  with  mamma  and  myself  to  the  Gregorys'  my 
chances  of  seeing  John  Driscoll  before  Fuller  could  talk 
at  any  length  with  him  were  quite  satisfactory.  But 
if  Fuller  followed  an  occasional  custom  of  his  and 
left  the  house  between  nine  and  ten,  afterward  appearing 
at  the  party,  then  there  was  little  hope  that  he  and 
John  Driscoll  would  not  see  each  other,  at  the  club  or 
somewhere. 

As  it  turned  out,  Fuller  did  not  leave  the  house  until 
he  left  it  with  mamma  and  me. 

"  How  your  hand  trembles,  Helen,"  commented 
Susie  Montgomery  whilst  I  was  pinning  an  insecure 
portion  of  her  toilette  in  the  dressing-room  at  the 
Gregorys',  before  we  had  gone  downstairs.  Somebody 
once  said  of  Susie  that  she  would  be  a  charming  girl  at 
a  party  if  she  would  only  take  time  to  dress  before 
she  came,  and  not  follow  the  plan  of  constantly  mislay- 
ing herself  all  over  the  room. 

"  Yes  ;  I'm  a  little  nervous  to-night,  Susie."  Which 
was  not  half  true,  for  I  felt  on  literal  pins  and  needles 
of  nervousness  regarding  this  matter  of  seeing  John 
Driscoll  before  Fuller  could  see  him. 

We  went  downstairs,  presently,  Fuller  and  I  entering 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2$? 

together,  mamma  following  behind,  in  rnagnificent 
oneness.  Up  glided  Charley  Minard.  "  Pleasure  of 
a  turn,  Mrs.  Dobell  ?  " 

"  I  shan't  dance  till  the  cotillon,  thanks.  By  the  bye, 
v/e're  engaged  for  it,  are  we  not  ?  And  I  am  to  thank 
you  for  this  exquisite  bouquet.  Where  did  you  manage 
to  pick  up  these  divine  Marshall  Neils  ?  They  are 
nothing  if  not  heavenly." 

Just  then  Fuller  slipped  from  my  side.  I  had  put 
forth  no  effort  to  detain  him,  feeling  sure  that  it  would 
be  purely  useless  provided  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
go  away  for  any  such  purpose  as  to  communicate  with 
John  Driscoll.  If  I  should  show  at  all  a  marked  desire 
to  detain  him,  this  course  might  simply  agitate  suspi- 
cions that  were  now,  perhaps,  unborn.  For,  provided 
there  had  been  any  deceit  used,  Fuller  might  very 
possibly  believe  that  I  would  believe  without  asking 
corroboration  of  my  belief  from  John  Driscoll ;  and  so 
he  might  not  have  intended  exchanging  a  word  with  his 
friend  on  the  subject  of  what  he  had  told  me. 

As  soon  as  Fuller  was  gone,  however,  I  made  prompt 
work  of  beginning  my  search  about  the  rooms  for  John 
Driscoll.  "You  must  let  me  walk  round  with  you  till 
I'm  tired,"  I  told  good-natured  Charley  Minard,  who 
immediately  presented  his  arm.  "I'm  in  one  of  my 
nervous  fits,  to-night,  and  can  only  cure  myself  by 
walking  it  off." 

And  so  we  walked,  and  walked.  But  at  first  John 
Driscoll  seemed  to  be  nowhere.  Presently  my  eyes  fell 
upon  a  certain  corner  where  sat  a  lady  whom  I  had 
never  seen  before  ;  dark-eyed,  handsome,  foreign-look- 
ing. By  her  side  was  the  object  of  my  search. 

"  To  whom  is  Mr.  Driscol]  talking?"  I  immediately 
asked  of  Charley  Minard. 


258  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  That  is  Madame  De  Something — I  forget  the  othef 
two-thirds  of  her  name.  A  Frenchwoman,  whose 
husband  is  here,  I  fancy,  in  some  diplomatic  way. 
Enormously  swell,  and  very  nice  into  the  bargain." 

"  You  know  her,  then  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.  So  odd  that  I  can't  recollect  her  name. 
It's — it's "  with  the  commencement  of  some  em- 
phatic forehead-tapping. 

"  Never  mind,  please.  I'd  just  as  lief  not  know,  Mr. 
Minard.  I  want  to  secure  this  seat  right  opposite, 
here,  before  any  one  gets  it ;  and  then  I  shall  ask  you 
to  do  me  a  favor." 

After  I  had  gotten  the  seat,  one  commanding  a  fine 
view  of  John  Driscoll  and  his  Frenchwoman, 

"  You  will  go  and  say  a  few  words  for  me,"  I  began, 
"to  Mr.  Driscoll,  please.  Tell  him— "  Here  I  stopped, 
abruptly.  Fuller  was  the  cause  of  my  having  stopped. 
He  stood  not  three  yards  from  where  John  Driscoll  was 
sitting.  He  was  not  talking  to  anybody  but  appeared 
to  be  dividing  attention  between  his  friend  and  a  cer- 
tain monstrous  basket  of  flowers  at  his  elbow.  Was  he 
lying  in  wait  to  secure  John  Driscoll  at  the  earliest 
chance?  It  certainly  looked  so. 

"  Well,  tell  him  what?"  questioned  Mr.  Minard. 

I  went  on,  then,  in  a  kind  of  roughened  voice. 
"That  I  particularly  wish  to  speak  to  him  for  a  mo- 
ment, without  a  second's  delay.  In  other  words,  take 
his  place  with  Madame  De  Somebody  and  send  him 
instantly  to  me.  Then  I'll  be  immensely  nice  to  you,  if 
you  value  such  a  reward,  all  through  the  cotillon  ;  and 
when  we  meet  again  I  shall  make  you  throw  away  that 
ugly  boutonniere  and  take  one  of  the  loveliest  roses  out 
of  your  own  bouquet." 

"An   irresistible   bargain,"    he   commented,   begin- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

ning  to  go  ;    "I  must  strike  it  with  you."      And  he 
went. 

Fuller  had  not  yet  seen  me  ;  of  that  I  felt  nearly  cer- 
tain. As  Charley  Minard  put  out  his  hand  to  the 
French  lady,  Fuller  drew  a  step  nearer  the  group  :  he 
was  almost  near  enough,  now,  to  hear  what  they  were 
talking  about.  I  saw  my  error,  then.  The  shadow  of 
coming  failure  already  darkened  my  spirit. 

Charley  Minard  said  something  to  the  French  lady, 
and  then  addressed  several  sentences  to  John  Driscoll.  I 
watched  a  surprised  look  cross  his  face.  A  moment 
later  he  turned,  glanced  in  my  direction,  saw  me,  bowed 
and  rose.  Meanwhile  Fuller's  eyes  followed  each  move- 
ment. 

I  was  like  a  general  who  observes  under  the  most 
favorable  visual" circumstances  the  complete  defeat  of 
his  army. 

John  Driscoll  had  bowingly  left  the  lady  and  was 
advancing  toward  me,  when  Fuller  slipped  up  to  his  side 
and  caught  his  arm.  He  turned,  met  Fuller's  face,  and 
the  two  friends  began  talking.  I  yearned  to  jump  from 
my  chair  and  join  them.  '  Women  cannot  dash  through 
ball-rooms  without  male  companions/  I  seemed  to  hear 
Conventionality  reprovingly  murmur.  I  looked  again 
at  John  Driscoll  and  Fuller :  my  husband  had  gotten 
an  arm  in  that  of  his  friend  and  was  slowly  leading  him 
away  from  me,  whilst  talking  with  vehemence.  I  felt- 
that  I  could  bear  it  no  longer — or  wouldn't,  whether  I 
could  or  not. 

Up  from  my  chair  I  sprang,  and  was  just  preparing 
myself  to  sail  in  unattended  grace  through  the  room, 
when  lo,  a  fresh  obstacle  ! 

Mrs.  Gregory,  glorious  in  her  bediamonded  Roman- 
nosed  hostesship. 


26o  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Dobell,  the  Marquis  de  Lanzolle  has 
just  asked  to  be  presented.  A  marked  honor,  I  assure 
you,"  she  progressed;  and  by  the  bye,  she  is  about  the 
most  unconscionable  snob  in  New  York.  "  They  are 
great  people,  you  know,  and  only  here  for  a  very  short 
time.  His  wife  is  talking  with  Mr.  Minard,  just 
opposite  us.  Is  she  not  lovely-looking  ?  " 

Whereupon  the  marquis  (a  really  charming  elderly 
man,  with  exquisite  manners,)  was  made  to  know  me, 
and  even  my  final  forlorn  hope  regarding  Fuller  and 
John  Driscoll  suffered  absolute  extinction. 

But  later  in  the  evening,  during  a  pause  of  the  co- 
tillon, John  Driscoll  came  and  sat  down  beside  me.  "  I 
received  your  message,"  he  promptly  opened  conversa- 
tion, "but  somebody  seized  hold  of  me  just  as  I  was 
fulfilling  it." 

I  did  not  even  look  searchingly  at  him.  I  understood 
that  it  would  be  a  thorough  waste  of  time  and  words  for 
me  to  make  the  remotest  semblance  of  an  attempt  to- 
ward knowing  how  much  he  knew.  John  Driscoll  is  a 
man  whose  immense  natural  gifts  of  ready  wit,  clear- 
headedness, facial  control  and  every  similar  trait  which 
belongs  under  the  general  labelling  of  Tact,  have  all  been 
cultivated  so  tellingly  during  past  worldly  years  that  they 
form  a  fortress  against  which  I  should  not  think  of  hurl- 
ing my  frail  arrows.  However,  the  chance  remained  of 
his  not  having  made  Fuller  any  promise,  of  Fuller's 
entire  silence  on  the  subject  we  had  discussed  at  dinner. 
If  this  were  the  case,  I  was  sure  of  hearing  the  plain 
truth — yes  or  no.  If  Fuller  had  really  forestalled  me, 
then  his  friendship  for  my  husband  would  have  exerted 
its  force,  good  friend  of  mine  though  I  well  knew  him 
to  be. 

"  I   worded   the    message    rather  urgently,"  I  com- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  26l 

menced.     Then  I  asked  him  the  roundest,  the  most  un- 
varnished of  questions.      "  Fuller  says  that  you  saw  mo 
go  into  Delmonico's,  the  other  day,  with  Margie    Cart 
wright.     Did  you  really  tell  Fuller  this  ?  " 

He  laughed  with  pleasant  quietude.  "  It  is  not  ver} 
nice  of  you  to  doubt  Fuller's  word." 

Then,  with  a  sudden  passionate  impulse,  I  tried  tc 
put  my  soul  in  my  eyes,  asking:  "Will  you  give  me 
your  word  that  you  said  this  to  Fuller  ?  " 

He  shook  his  head  with  some  low  laughter.  "  By 
Jove,  I  couldn't  think  of  giving  my  word  about 
anything  of  that  sort.  You  know  what  a  traitor  my 
memory  has  always  been.  I  merely  am  willing  to  state 
that  I  did  see  you,  and  that  I  did  tell  Fuller  I  had  seen 
you,  when  you  entered — " 

"  That  will  do,"  I  broke  in,  giving  my  fan  reason  to 
collapse  so  suddenly  that  I  just  missed  breaking  it. 
"If  you're  deceiving  me,  I  don't  suppose  I  ought  to 
blame  you,  under  the  circumstances.  Mind,  I  don't  say 
whether  you  are  or  not.  Only,  pray  let  us  drop  the 
subject." 

Which  we  were  almost  immediately  compelled  to  do, 
by  the  bye,  as  the  cotillon  recommenced,  and  Charley 
Minard  came  up  to  take  his  lawful  seat  by  my  side  and 
depose  Mr.  Driscoll. 

I  went  through  the  first  figure  that  followed,  with  a 
tear  of  rage  in  each  eye.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  nobody 
saw  two  such  inopportune  strangers  amid  so  much  fes- 
tivity. 

What  are  my  feelings  now,  when  I  think  it  all  over  ? 
Do  I  give  Fuller  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  ?  I  must,  in 
common  justice  ;  but  that  is  all. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

|AN.  4. — Suspicions  gnaw  me.  I  am  sick  for 
their  ceaseless  tormentings.  Sometimes  the 
thought  that  I  am  being  made  a  fool  of -sweeps 
over  me  surgewise.  At  such  times  I  feel  like  rushing 
to  mamma,  or  even  Fuller  himself.  But  of  course  I 
control  such  impulses.  It  would  be  merely  a  simple 
method  of  forewarning  and  forearming.  If  he  has 
lied  to  me,  it  is  assuredly  his  wish  to  keep  on  lying ; 
and  were  I  to  show  him  my  present  state  of  mind, 
whole  handfuls  of  dust  would  immediately  be  thrown  at 
my  eyes. 

I  have  thought  of  a  certain  means  to  a  certain  end. 
Melville  Delano  will  tell  me  anything  on  the  subject, 
provided  he  knows  anything.  And  I  might  bring  my- 
self, too,  to  ask  him,  though  I  have  given  him  a  cold 
enough  sort  of  bow  since  that  night  at  the  opera.  I 
suppose  he  will  be  at  the  Romeyns'  on  Monday  night ; 
he  has  been  going  to  all  the  gayeties  lately. 

Jan.  8. — Something  has  at  last  occurred  worth  chron- 
icling ;  but  very  possibly  I  am  wrong  in  attempting  to 
write  it  out.  My  head  becomes  fire  at  the  thought  of 
such  attempt,  and  my  heart  begins  to  beat  with  a  long 
strong  throb. 

Fuller  did  not  go  to  the  Romeyns',  this  evening.     At 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  263 

dinner  he  told  us  carelessly  that  there  was  a  chance  of 
his  being  there  very  late  and  a  chance  of  his  not  being 
there  at  all.  For  my  own  part,  I  would  have  given 
much  for  the  energy  to  put  down  my  foot  before 
mamma,  and  myself  refuse  to  go  ;  but  although  some- 
how feeling  wretchedly  unfit  for  any  sort  of  festivity, 
(and  I  have  been  having  miserable  weak  feelings  every 
day  for  some  time  past,  mixed  with  dreary  touches  of 
headache)  I  lacked,  just  then,  the  fortitude  to  brave 
her  displeasure,  and  so  temporized,  stating  that  I  wanted 
to  be  home  early,  since  I  was  not  engaged  for  the 
cotillon  and  did  not  intend  letting  anybody  have  me 
for  a  partner. 

"Very  well,  Helen,"  mamma  acquiesced.  "You 
know  I  haven't  any  special  passion  for  sitting  among 
cotillon-spectators  unless  the  figures  are  strikingly  odd 
or  the  whole  entertainment  strikingly  splendid.  And 
by  the  bye,"  she  murmured,  touching  one  of  her  gray 
puffs  in  queenly  meditation,  "I  don't  feel  absolutely 
certain,  my  dear,  that  these  Romeyns  will  do  much 
more  than  just  succeed  in  having  the  right  sort  of  peo- 
ple at  their  house.  However,  Mrs.  Montgomery  and 
Mrs.  Cartwright  and  Mrs.  Chamberlane  all  promise  to 
be  there,  and  with  myself  added  that  will  give  the  affair 
a  certain  sort  of — of — "  (ever  so  little  on  one  side  went 
mamma's  majestic  head ;  ever  so  little  upward  were 
lifted  her  grand  shoulders) — "tone,  I  suppose,  is  the 
word.  We  had  better  order  the  carriage,  then,  for 
twelve  ?  " 

I  had  not  been  in  the  Romeyns'  rooms  more  than  five 
minutes  before  I  discovered  Melville  Delano  among  the 
guests.  Then,  whilst  allowing  Ludlow  Inmann  to  pull 
his  string  and  subject  me  to  his  mild  shower-bath  of 
trifles,  I  made  believe  that  my  mind  was  engrossed  with 


264  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

what  I  was  letting  this  young  gentleman  do  for  me  and 
not  giving  final  consideration  to  the  subject  of  whether 
I  had  best  speak  or  not  speak  to  Melville  Delano. 

I  at  last  concluded  to  speak.  Ludlow  Inmann  looked 
a  little  blank  when  I  asked  him  to  go  and  tell  Melville 
Delano  that  I  wanted  a  few  moments'  conversation.  He 
had  been  my  messenger  on  a  similar  errand  at  the  opera, 
not  long  ago.  But  he  has  amazing  good-nature  :  or  is 
it  that  most  of  these  dancing-men,  modeled  after  his 
not  very  intricate  or  subtle  type,  like  me  with  the  sort 
of  prejudiced  liking  that  permits  me  to  impose  upon 
them,  every  once  in  a  while,  and  not  receive  the  curt 
reverses  of  gallantry  that  some  women  are  unlucky 
enough  to  encounter?  I  think  yes.  I  seem  to  have 
drifted,  since  I  first  came  among  these  people,  into  a 
current  of  quiet  popularity  that  has  been  bearing  me 
along  ever  since.  Perhaps  this  valuable  popularity  ex- 
plains why  what  Cornelia  Walters  no  doubt  considers 
my  unnatural  treatment  of  Fuller  in  the  Park,  that  day, 
has  not  made  Society  regard  me  with  such  very  shocked 
eyes,  after  all. 

Ludlow  Inmann  disappeared  in  the  throng  and 
presently  I  saw  Melville  elbowing  his  way  to  me.  He 
made  no  attempt  to  shake  hands,  but  just  speech- 
lessly seated  himself  in  the  chair  I  had  been  saving  for 
him. 

"  I  sent  for  you,"  was  my  unnecessary  opening  state- 
ment, made  purely  to  make  words. 

He  nodded  faintly.  "  Otherwise  I  should  not  have 
come.  And  I  suppose  you  had  a  very  important  rea- 
son for  sending." 

"Yes,"  I  plunged;  "very.  I  wanted  to  get  some 
friendly  information  from  you — that  is,  if  you're  willing 
and  able  to  furnish  it." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  26$ 

"  Well  ?  "  His  dark  face,  that  I  have  seen  so  passion- 
ful,  was  set  in  lines  of  hard  serenity.  He  leaned  for- 
ward a  trifle,  fixing  his  black  steady  eyes  upon  me  in 
cold  inquiry. 

"  It  is  about  that  woman — the  hotel-piazza  woman." 

"Yes." 

"  I  want  to  know  whether  you  know  if  Fuller — " 
Then  I  stopped,  and  felt  that  shame  had  hurried  up  to 
me  with  her  rouge-pot  and  rapidly  begun  operations  on 
either  cheek.  It  was  such  humiliation  to  ask  him  ! 

"  I  can  guess  how  you  wish  to  finish  your  sentence," 
he  presently  stated,  in  a  voice  very  much  as  though  there 
were  a  counter  between  us  and  our  relations  were  of  a 
character  strictly  mercantile.  "  But  I  prefer  running  no 
risks  until  I  learn  precisely  what  you  mean,  Mrs.  Do- 
hjelL" 

"  This  then,"  I  hurried,  with  a  sort  of  '  now-or-never' 
air.  "  Do  you  know  whether  Fuller  is  at  all  intimate  with 
that  woman  at  present — ever  sees  her,  in  fact  ?  " 

"I  have  no  doubt,"  came  the  glib  response,  "that 
they  are  very  intimate  and  that  he  sees  her  constantly." 

It  is  trusted  that  no  one  noticed  me  grasp  Melville 
Delano's  arm,  right  here,  and  hold  it  for  two  or  three 
seconds  afterward  with  tightening  fingers.  The  rooms 
were  just  then  packed  with  people  and  we  occupied 
seats  close  against  the  wall,  shut  in  by  the  babbling 
smiling  human  crush. 

"  You  will  be  careful,  please,  how  you  deal  in  reck- 
less statements,  "  I  blazed,  though  my  tones  were  of  the 
conventional  key.  "Remember,  I  speak  of  the  present, 
not  the  past.  Of  the  present  within  a  month  or  so. 
They  used  to  be  very  intimate,  perhaps  :  are  they  inti- 
mate now  ?  " 

My  excitement  only  seemed  to  make  him  more  col- 
12 


266  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

lected.  He  had  evidently  punished  himself  with  yards 
of  sackcloth,  bushels  of  ashes,  for  that  furious  evening 
at  the  opera. 

"  I  have  heard  of  no  change,"  he  murmured,  his  voice 
gentle  and  even-toned.  "  If  there  has  been  such  a 
change  I  can  perhaps  find  out  the  exact  truth  for  you 
within  a  very  little  while." 

All  this  calmness  and  precision  from  a  man  with  whom 
neither  is  characteristic,  nettled  me  rather  keenly  ;  net- 
tled me,  too,  because  I  saw  behind  it  a  fixed  intensity 
of  hatred  for  Fuller  and  a  savage  willingness  to  act  as 
informer  against  him. 

"No  doubt,"  I  broke  forth,  ''you  will  go  to  any 
lengths  in  what  you  consider  such  a  fine  cause.  I  wish 
you  had  snubbed  me  when  I  first  made  known  my  de- 
sires, this  evening.  I  half  thought  you  would,  to  be 
sincere.  You  ought  to  have  done  so." 

This  had  been  a  telling  shaft,  as  I  soon  saw.  Much 
of  his  calmness  vanished  on  the  instant ;  but  his  tones 
had  a  sharp  touch  of  anger,  notwithstanding. 

"  I  have  shown  a  willingness  to  aid  you  in  discover- 
ing what  you  have  a  thorough  right  to  know.  You  first 
endeavor  to  use  me  and  when  I  evidence  a  disposition 
to  be  used,  begin  an  attack  upon  me.  Whose  conduct 
is  the  more  consistent? — the  more  generous?"  He 
rose  abruptly  and  stood  at  my  side  :  I  could  see  that  his 
lips  wanted  to  sneer  and  that  there  was  within  his  ardent 
Spanish  sort  of  eyes  a  kind  of  dulled  fire  that  would  have 
matched  a  sneer  very  nicely.  "  Helen  Dobell,  when 
will  you  learn  to  treat  me  as  if  I  had  a  remnant  of  hu- 
man feeling?  "  he  slowly  asked.  "  I  don't  think  your 
nature  is  a  cruel  one,  but  God  knows  I  seem  to  have 
the  benefit  of  every  cruel  impulse  that  ever  visits  it !" 

"  You're    very   good    at    melodrama,"    I    retorted; 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  26/ 

*'  only  please  recollect  that  I've  received  some  proof  of 
your  powers  before  now." 

He  stood  for  a  moment  quite  quietly,  after  that,  look- 
ing away  from  me.  I  fanned  myself.  At  length  he 
bent  down  (just  as  I  saw  Aleck  Sheffield,  beaming  with 
discovery  in  the  distance,  on  his  way  toward  me  through 
the  throng)  and  quickly  murmured  : 

"  I  shall  let  you  know  to-morrow  whether  the  answet 
I  gave  your  question  to-night  was  correct  or  no." 
Then,  whilst  Aleck  Sheffield  shook  hands  with  me,  he 
slipped  away. 

"How  unfortunate  that  you  shouldn't  stay  for  the 
German,"  Mr.  Sheffield  lamented.  "  I'm  going  to  lead, 
you  know,  and  I  never  saw  such  glorious  material  as 
they  have  for  the  flower  figure,  not  to  speak  of  the  im- 
mense originality  about  certain  favors  and  things  of  that 
sort.  Each  man  has  to  jump  through  a  paper  hoop  and 
scream  houpla  /  before  he  can  dance  with  his  chosen 
partner." 

But  our  carnage  was  ordered  for  twelve,  and  I  would 
not  be  tempted,  and  should  probably  have  behaved  with 
forcible  bad-humour  if  mamma  had  wanted  the  order 
changed  :  which  mamma,  for  reasons  that  were  mani- 
fest during  the  first  portion  of  our  homeward  drive, 
clearly  did  not  want. 

"A  mixture,"  she  commented,  as  our  hack  rolled 
through  the  chilly  streets  in  the  chilly  January  mid- 
night;  "a  melancholy  mixture,  Helen,  was  it  not? 
The  Romeyns  could  entertain  so  brilliantly  if  they  only 
chose  to  be — " 

"  Snobs,"  I  put  in,  dragging  my  opera-cloak  closer 
about  me,  and  staring  through  the  uncurtained  window 
at  my  side. 

"  Precisely.     Which,  be  it  said  to  their  discredit,  they 


268  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

are  not.  Helen,  why  don't  you  pull  down  the  curtain  ? 
Do  you  consider  it  nice  style  to  be  seen  glaring  out  into 
the  street?" 

"Who  could  recognize  me,  mamma?"  I  laughed. 
"Did  you  ever  know  such  intensely  bright  moonlight  ? 
How  lovely  Stewart's  house  looks  !  One  might  almost 
fancy  oneself  in  Venice,  if  this  carriage  were  more 
like  a  gondola." 

"  Pray  pull  down  the  curtain,  Helen."  She  spoke  so 
sharply  that  I  lifted  my  hand  to  obey  her. 

Just  then  a  carriage  came  rumbling  past  us,  going  in 
the  same  direction.  For  a  moment  it  was  so  near  that 
I  could  look  into  it  through  its  uncurtained  window. 
And  I  did  look.  And  I  saw  a  face  that  set  my  heart 
beating  wildly  :  Fuller's  face.  I  also  caught  a  glimpse 
of  another  figure  seated  beside  him  :  a  woman's  figure, 
I  more  than  half  fancied.  This  latter  was  so  obscure, 
so  momently  seen,  that  it  left  the  vaguest  sort  of  im- 
pression. 

After  that  the  carriage  rolled  rapidly  beyond  us. 

Decision  more  instantaneous  than  mine  was  then,  has 
not  often  been  made,  I  think.  Mamma  was  on  the 
back  seat ;  I  on  the  front.  Right  behind  me  was  the 
little  glass  window  by  means  of  which  one  may  hold 
communication  with  the  coachman,  if  so  desirous. 

I  sprang  up,  turned  toward  this  window  and  quickly 
slid  it  down,  using  both  hands.  Through  the  aperture 
I  thrust  head  and  shoulders. 

"  Coachman,"  I  called,  "  coachman." 

He  heard  me  at  once,  slackening  the  horses'  speed 
and  leaning  down  to  hear  what  more  might  be  said. 

"  Coachman,  do  you  see  the  carriage  that  has  just 
passed  us  ?  " 

"Yes,  m'm." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  269 

"Very  well.  Follow  it.  Follow  it  at  a  little  dis- 
tance, wherever  it  goes.  When  it  stops,  stop  too,  but 
not  near  enough  to  let  them  notice  you.  Do  you  un- 
derstand what  I  mean?  " 

A  pause.     Was  he  never  going  to  answer  me  ? 

"  Dorit  you  understand?"  I  presently  repeated, 
querulous-voiced. 

Something  pulled  sharply  at  my  dress  from  behind. 
"  Helen,"  came  mamma's  awful  murmur. 

With  it  came  the  coachman's  reply.  "Yes,  m'm,  I 
understand."  At  this  I  drew  in  my  head,  closed  the 
window  and  threw  myself  back  into  my  seat. 

Mamma's  dark  eyes  were  shooting  fire  at  me  through 
the  dimness.  "  Helen,  what  does  this  mean  ?  " 

"  It  means  that  Fuller  was  in  that  carriage,"  I  cried, 
"  with  somebody.  I  am  going  to  find  out  who  that 
somebody  is.  Don't  try  and  stop  me.  I  shall  find  out. " 

"Change  that-order  instantly!"  she  pealed  forth, 
placing  herself  at  my  side  and  reaching  out  an  arm  to- 
ward the  window  I  had  just  closed. 

But  I  caught  her  hand  by  the  wrist  and  pulled  it  back. 
Our  faces  were  quite  plain  to  each  other.  I  think  I 
could  have  killed  her  easily,  in  a  very  little  time,  just 
then  ;  I  felt  so  fierce  and  strong.  I  am  sure  that  I  would 
have  fought  and  struggled  with  her  if  she  had  made 
another  effort  to  address  the  coachman. 

She  made  no  such  effort.  Our  faces,  I  repeat,  were 
quite  plain  to  each  other.  She  must  have  seen  the 
tiger  of  opposition  in  mine.  Once  or  twice  she  seemed 
on  the  point  of  speaking  and  then  checked  herself  with 
a  look  of  mixed  contempt  and  consternation  ;  as  though 
I  was  much  too  crazy  for  the  hearing  of  any  rational 
statement.  And  in  such  opinion  I  believe  her  to  have 
been  wholly  right. 


270 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


Meanwhile  the  carriage  rumbled  on.  We  had  left  the 
Avenue  and  were  in  a  side-street.  Presently  we  stopped. 

I  caught  the  door-knob,  got  the  door  open  and 
stepped  out  into  the  street.  Behind  me  I  heard  a  voice 
that  I  hardly  recognized,  plead  in  deep  despairing  tones  : 
"  Helen,  Helen  !  Please  come  back  !  "  (Was  ever 
such  monarchical  overthrow !) 

I  saw  the  other  carriage  the  instant  I  looked  for  it, 
standing  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  way,  not  a  hundred 
yards  off,  and  distinct  enough  in  the  long  empty  moon- 
lit street. 

If  I  had  really  cared  for  Fuller's  recognition  of  me  I 
don't  suppose  that  I  would  have  done  anything  except 
break  down  miserably,  now,  feeling  my  courage  collapse 
into  the  limpest  kind  of  cowardice.  But  I  did  not  at  all 
care.  My  firm  purpose  was  to  find  out  who  occupied 
the  carriage  with  him.  One's  own  eyesight  was  better 
proof  than  all  the  most  precious  testimony  of  a  Melville 
Delano. 

My  white  dress  and  white  cloak  made  me  very  con- 
spicuous whilst  I  stole  across  the  street ;  but  as  I  did 
not  court  detection,  at  first,  I  found  it  easy  to  avoid 
being  seen.  Their  coachman -had  not  seemed  even  to 
notice  the  presence  of  our  c.arriage  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  way  ;  and  as  I  sped  across  the  street  the  bulk  of 
Fuller's  carriage  hid  me  from  those  who  were  alighting. 
And  then,  for  a  little  space,  I  stood  in  complete  ambush, 
feeling  that  the  instant  she  appeared  on  the  sidewalk  I 
should  discover  who  she  was — or  was  not. 

But  I  was  wrong,  here.  For  when  Fuller  helped  her 
from  the  carriage  (I  confess,  by  the  way,  to  an  odd  kind 
of  satisfaction  on  finding  that  there  really  had  been  a 
woman  inside)  all  that  I  managed  to  see,  somehow,  was 
a  mass  of  dark  silk  draperies  and  the  back  of  a  bonnet. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

And  the  owner  of  these  hurried  up  the  stoop  of  the 
nearest  house,  still  giving  only  a  rear  view  to  my  strained 
eyes. 

As  she  did  so  Fuller  bangingly  closed  the  carriage- 
door  and  at  once  turned  to  ascend  the  stoop,  without 
holding  any  words  with  the  coachman. 

Whereupon  away  rolled  the  carriage,  just  as  I  stepped 
audaciously  upon  the  curb,  following  Fuller  with  I  don't 
know  what  mad  idea  of  entering  the  house  itself,  pro- 
vided only  my  purpose  were  carried  out  and  I  saw  his 
companion's  face. 

Over  the  lower  part  of  my  own  face  I  drew  the  netted 
worsted-work  which  I  wore  about  my  head.  It  seemed 
to  me  now,  whilst  I  stood  directly  at  the  foot  of  the 
stoop,  staring  up  at  them,  as  though  one  or  the  other 
must  look  down  and  discover  me  before  their  summons 
at  the  bell  was  answered.  A  glance  at  the  woman's 
face  would  have  made  me  certain  who  she  was,  (or  was 
not)  in  that  brilliant  winter  moonlight.  Already  my 
convictions  were  strong.  The  large  easeful  pliancy  of 
her  figure  and  the  floating  sort  of  grace  that  marked  her 
movements  could  not  well  belong  to  other  than  one 
certain  woman. 

They  waited  for  the  bell  to  be  answered.  The  cold- 
ness of  the  night  made  them  both  draw  close  against  the 
dark  door,  ready  to  enter  the  house  the  instant  it  should 
be  opened.  Fuller's  face  was  not  entirely  averted  ;  hers 
was  turned  fixedly  doorward. 

I  felt  as  if  a  true  devil  of  recklessness  had  gotten  into 
my  blood,  now.  Having  gone  thus  far,  I  should  not 
be  driven  back  from  the  very  verge  of  discovery.  Then, 
also,  what  had  I  to  lose?  Nothing.  What  to  gain? 
Much  :  if  it  be  much  to  learn  whether  anyone  has 
shamelessly  hoodwinked  you  or  no. 


272  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

And  so  I  sprang  up  the  stoop  three  or  four  steps,  with 
the  network  drawn  closer  across  my  face.  Then  I 
coughed  loudly.  After  that  I  saw  her  face  with  much 
plainness.  And  her  voice  called  out  to  me  just  before  I 
turned  to  descend  the  stoop  : 

"  Why,  Flora,  is  that  you  ?  " 

I  think  I  had  reached  the  curb  of  the  sidewalk  when 
one  rough  hand  caught  my  arm,  another  my  shoulder. 
Without  looking,  I  knew  the  assailant  was  Fuller. 
Whether  he  saw  me  or  not  I  did  not  really  care  ;  and 
yet  I  tried  to  free  myself;  simply,  perhaps,  with  the  aim 
of  baffling  his  curiosity. 

But  he  held  me  hard,  ruffianwise,  tearing  my  cloak 
with  his  savage  clutch  upon  it  and  bringing  his  face 
round  so  as  to  gain  view  of  mine.  And  then,  with  a 
little  bitter  laugh,  I  used  my  free  hand  to  tear  away 
from  my  face  all  covering.  "  Look  as  long  as  you 
please,"  I  cried.  "  I  was  determined  to  see  who  that 
woman  was,  and  I've  succeeded  !  You  have  proved 
yourself  a  liar — nearly  the  last  bad  thing  it  was  left  you 
to  be  !  " 

He  had  drawn  back  and  ceased  to  hold  me,  almost 
from  the  instant  that  he  saw  my  face.  Doubtless  they 
had  neither  of  them  recognized  me  when  I  had  coughed 
them  into  the  noticing  of  my  presence,  a  little  while  ago. 

"  Helen,  I  shall  make  you  pay  for  this." 

He  looked  ghastly  in  the  moonlight  whilst  he  glared 
at  me,  muttering  those  words.  For  my  own  part,  I 
was  all  tremulous  with  passion  and  felt  my  blood  burn 
with  an  insane  fierceness.  But  I  had  sense  enough  to 
see  the  queer  tragi-comedy  of  our  position,  if  one  may 
name  it  so.  Just  as  I  thought,  I  spoke,  receding 
further  from  him  at  every  word. 

"  I  have  gained  my  point,  and  that  is  all  I  cared  to 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  2/3 

do.     I  have  found  out  that  you  have  not  one  spark  of 
honor.     That  you  are  a  liar." 

The  carnage  waited  just  where  I  had  left  it  such  a 
very  little  while  ago  ;  for  I  suppose,  by  the  bye,  that  this 
whole  wild  proceeding  did  not  really  occupy  three  min- 
utes. - 

Mamma's  face  looked  stonily  severe  as  I  entered, 
after  telling  the  coachman  to  drive  home.  But  not  a 
syllable  left  her  lips  all  through  our  homeward  ride. 
Her  fall  was  worthy  of  a  great  tyrant.  She  accepted  it 
in  superb  silence. 

After  we  got  home  I  passed  upstairs  to  my  room 
and  have  been  here  thinking  and  writing,  writing  and 
thinking,  ever  since. 

I  wonder  if  mamma  leaned  out  of  the  carriage-window 
and  saw,  and  heard.  Something  of  this  sort  must  have 
occurred  :  otherwise  her  lack  of  curiosity  would  have 
been  purely  marvellous.  She  probably  knows  the  very 
worst :  knows,  I  mean,  that  I  am  going. 

For  I  am  going ;  that  is  certain*  unless  Fuller  goes. 
They  cannot  keep  me  here,  now.  Let  mamma  refuse 
to  help  me,  if  she  chooses  ;  I  shall  help  myself ;  I  have 
a  little  money  saved  and  Madame  Langlois  may  get  me 
or  else  give  me  some  situation  as  teacher.  Anyhow,  I 
am  going  if  Fuller  does  not  go  ;  whether  to  sink  or  swim, 
starve  or  prosper — I  am  going. 

If  Fuller  had  come  in  whilst  I  have  been  writing  in  you, 
Diary,  I  should  have  appeared  before  him  at  once,  and 
have  stated  my  intention,  even  at  the  risk  of  having  night 
made  hideous  to  the  next-door  neighbors.  But  he  has 
not  come.  I  daresay  he  will  not  appear  until  to-mor- 
row, sometime  ;  or  rather  to-day,  for  it  is  long  long 
past  midnight.  And  I  am  sorry  not  to  have  seen  him 
whilst  able  to  deal,  as  I  feel  myself  able  now,  with  any- 
12* 


2/4  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

thing  he  might  dare  to  bring  up,  offensive,  defensive, 
palliative. 

It  is  true,  there  are  sharp  queer  pains  darting  through 
my  head  at  intervals,  and  now  and  then  light  shivers 
seem  to  pass  and  re-pass  from  my  head  to  my  feet. 
But  I  am  quite  sleepless,  and  could  use  my  brain  to 
good  purpose,  if  called  upon.  Perhaps  I  am  going  to 
be  ill ;  I  hope  not.  All  my  best  energies  are  needed 
now. 

I  do  not  suppose  mamma  will  ever  consent  to  my 
leaving  the  house.  She  will  force  Fuller  to  go,  in  all 
likelihood.  Still,  I  am  ready.  There  must  be  a  sepa- 
ration. Ah,  that  pain.  ...  I  shall  try  and  sleep,  but 
I  do  not  believe  that  I  could  compose  myself  in  one 
position  for  ten  minutes'  time,  if  it  were  a  matter  of  life 
arid  death. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

|AN.  8. — It  is  nearly  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and 
Fuller  is  not  yet  home.  All  day  I  have  been 
asking  for  him — that  is,  whenever  my  blinding 
headache  would  permit  me  to  think  of  anything  but  its 
own  agony.  I  ought  not  to  touch  you  now,  Diary. 
Every  moment  I  expect  a  recurrence  of  my  sufferings 
to  pay  for  such  imprudence.  I  was  so  ill  this  morning 
that  mamma  made  me  see  the  doctor.  Perfect  quiet 
was  prescribed  among  other  medicines  of  a  somewhat 
stronger  character. 

Can  Fuller  really  have  returned  and  mamma  not  have 
told  me?  I  think  it  quite  probable.  Well,  well,  I 
must  use  despatch  in  getting  better,  so  that  I  can  be 
thoroughly  my  own  mistress.  The  worst  of  it  is,  I  am 
so  weak  :  to-day  I  grew  tired  and  dizzy  after  merely 
walking  from  one  room  into  the  next.  I  wish  I  could 
sleep  ;  but  my  brain  seems  to  burn  when  it  does  not 
ache,  so  keeping  me  always  wakeful.  I  found  myself 
in  such  a  strange  stupor  this  morning.  I  know  my 
eyes  were  open  and  that  I.  was  not  asleep  ;  and  yet 
Fuller  seemed  to  be  walking  with  me  through  fresh 
keen-aired  October  country,  and  Pine*side  was  some- 
where near,  and  we  had  only  been  engaged  a  very  little 
while.  I  had  just  slipped  my  arm  within  his,  and  had 


276 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


gotten  a  strange  thrilled  feeling  whilst  we  walked  on  to 
gether  through  the  early  autumn  evening.  And  he  had 
just  called  me  darling,  and  a  little  spot  on  one  of  my 
cheeks  was  tingling  yet  from  the  soft  assault  of  his  warm 
lips.  And  westward,  above  the  "  quiet-colored  end  of 
evening,"  there  was  a  tender  slender  crescent-moon  ; 
and  many  katydids  were  talking  very  dreamily  to- 
gether. 

"  Headache  seems  to  be  her  principal  trouble,  Doc- 
tor," informs  mamma,  promptly  silencing  the  timid 
katydids.  After  that  I  wake  up  and  have  my  pulse 
felt,  and  exhibit  my  tongue,  and  ask  Doctor  Prentice 
whether  he  thinks  I  will  get  over  it  soon.  Of  course  he 
thinks  yes.  When  did  a  doctor,  under  like  circumstan- 
ces, ever  deviate  from  thinking  yes  ? 

But  I  am  omitting  to  chronicle  the  only  real  event  of 
to-day  :  Melville  Delano's  note.  It  came  this  evening, 
at  perhaps  eight  o'clock,  and  was  written  on  his  club 
paper.  I  suppose  it  may  be  said  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure  ;  although  I  was  in  need  of  no  such  forceful 
testimony.  This  is  the  way  it  runs  : 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  DOBELL  : — I  have  had  the  means  of  finding  out  what 
you  desired  to  leant  and  I  have  availed  myself  of  these  means.  The  inti- 
macy of  your  husband  with  the  woman  Edith  Everdell  still  continues 
wholly  unchanged.  I  am  glad  to  have  been  of  service  in  this  little  matter, 
and  beg  you  to  believe  me 

"  Sincerely  your  friend, 

"MELVILLE  DELANO." 

Was  ever  such  arrogant  boldness  ?  This  man  has  the 
fearless  intense  hate  that  murderers  are  often  made  of. 
I  do  not  believe  it  would  do  anything  else  but  put  an 
insolent  glitter  in  his  black  eyes  if  Fuller  were  to  show 
him  that  note,  some  day.  Perhaps  he  half  thought 
that  it  might  get  to  be  seen  by  Fuller  at  some  future 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

time,  and  cared  slightly  enough  whether  it  did  or  no. 
But  it  shall  not.  I  have  just  thrown  it  from  my  chair 
into  the  fire  and  watched  it  whilst  devoured  by  the  red 
greed  of  the  flames.  As  ashes,  it  can  do  no  mischief. 

Mamma  seems  to  bear  me  no  ill  will  for  last  night's 
mad  prank.  She  has  been  very  attentive  all  day. 
Once  or  twice  I  have  caught  her  looking  at  me  with  a 
steady  puzzled  look.  Perhaps  she  thinks  me  very  ill ; 
or  wonders  if  -I  shall  not  soon  be  so  ;  or  reflects  upon 
her  own  future  in  case  I  should  die.  Her  excuse,  then, 
for  getting  to  those  balls  she  is  so  dearly  fond  of  would 
even  have  grown  slimmer  then  than  it  grew  when  I  was 
married. 

I  can't  help  asking  myself  what  she  would  do  about 
the  crying,  if  I  should  never  get  over  this.  There  would 
be  times  when  common  propriety  would  insist  that  she 
melted,  if  ever  so  little.  But  she  could  not  melt  The 
nearest  she  would  ever  come  to  shedding  a  tear  would 
be  when  somebody  pushed  her  down  a  little  from  the 
social  place  she  has  almost  sweated  blood  to  get.  Well, 
I  suppose  she  would  manage,  if  I  were  lying  anywhere 
stark  and  sheeted,  to  perform,  whilst  she  showed  me  to 
people,  something  so  successfully  woebegone  with  her 
handkerchief  that  public  opinion  would  feel  itself  amply 
satisfied. 

Ah,  what  wildness  and  ghastliness  am  I  writing, 
Diary  ?  I  don't  really  know ;  my  pencil  dances  over 
your  pages  as  if  it  were  leaded  with  quicksilver.  Think 
of  it  :  you,  that  are  insensate  white  paper  and  morocco, 
are  my  confidant  out  of  all  the  world — my  one  real 
friend  whom  I  meet  in  maskless  intimacy.  And  what 
bitter  bitter  things  I  have  had  to  tell  you  of  late  !  You 
were  like  a  stream,  not  long  ago,  that  lapsed  through 
laughing  lands  ;  I  never  dreamed  but  that  your  bank* 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

would  grow  lovelier,  lovelier,  almost  with  each  new 
day ;  but  suddenly  they  faded,  saddened,  blackened 
into  boglike  waste  and  dreariness.  Yet  never  mind  : 
some  day  I  shall  read  over  all  your  pleasant  pages  and 
take  a  kind  of  joy  in  the  reading  ;  for  I  am  not  one  of 
those  who  believe  that 

"  A  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow  is  remembering  happier  things." 

No  ;  it  is  the  one  comfort  that  the  poor  sorrow  clutches 
at  and  wears  on  her  chilled  bosom  amuletwise.  I  be- 
lieve it  is  Memory  who  gives  us  the  merciful  medicine 
that  often  saves  our  brains  from  ruin.  Well  for  the 
mourners  that  they  can  feel  those  impalpable  kisses  of 
their  dead — kisses  that  were  and  that  therefore  yet  are, 
divinely  !  Mothers,  wives,  fathers,  husbands,  be  thank- 
ful for  that  "  dewy  dawn  of  memory  "  which  can  visit 
your  benighted  lives,  now  and  then.  The  soul  that  has 
had  its  better  days  should  be  proud  of  having  seen 
them.  Helen  Dobell  is  glad  that  she  was  once  Helen 
Jeffreys :  glad  that  there  is  a  library  at  Pineside  where 
the  wood-fires  can  burn  right  blithesomely  ;  glad  that 
it  is  a  pleasant  thing,  when  a  woman  loves  a  man  with 
sweet  surrendering  passion,  to  walk  beside  him  through 
the  yellow-lit  autumn  evenings.  Golden  recollections 
are  only  dross  when  one  is  rich  in  golden  realities. 

Why  do  I  not  stop,  Diary  ?  If  some  one  doesn't  come 
in  and  stop  me  I  shall  probably  ramble  on  all  night  in 
this  haphazard  way  and  .  .  ~.  . 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

jEB.  19. — There  is  the  broken  sentence,  and 
more  than  a  month  has  passed  since  my  hand 
failed  in  finishing  it.  They  came  in,  a  little 
while  afterward,  and  found  that  I  had  fainted.  I  recol- 
lect breaking  off  in  you,  Diary,  because  of  a  sudden 
horrible  weakness,  and  staggering  with  you  miserably 
toward  my  desk  and  locking  you  up,  and  then  knowing 
that  I  was  going  to  faint  but  not  being  able  to  call 
Blanche  or  anybody.  And  after  that  I  cease  to  remem- 
ber everything. 

For  three  weeks  I  was  only  conscious  in  a  vague 
misty  way,  at  intervals.  Then  came  a  time-of  intense 
weakness,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  what  went  on  about 
me,  though  an  entire  inability  to  think  of  these  occur- 
rences. And  now  I  am  bolstered  exorbitantly  in  a 
huge  chair,  looking  like  the  shadow  of  a  ghost,  as  I  feel 
very  sure,  without  needing  any  toilette-glass  to  support 
me  in  the  statement. 

I  have  been  knocking  at  Death's  door,  they  seem  to 
think.  At  one  time  it  was  even  as  though  they  actually 
heard  Death's  responsive  drawing  of  the  bolt  and  the 
awful  hospitality  of  his  ' '  come  in."  But  the  dark  hinges 
that  move  so  willingly  for  some^stood  immobile  for  me. 
And  down  among  the  damp  dismal  purlieus  of  Death's 
abode  it  was  even  as  though  the  white  Life-Angel  wan- 


280  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

dered  to  find  me  and  to  bring  me  back,  like  a  child  that 
has  strayed  into  noisome  and  unwholesome  places. 

I  wonder  what  was  the  use  of  saving  me.  There  are 
so  many  others  who  might  have  gone  back  to  life 
gladder  themselves,  more  gladdening  to  those  about 
them.  Tu  sais  choisir,  I  recall  how  Alfred  de  Musset 
tells  death,  in  a  bitter  lamentation  that  those  for  whom 
life  wears  her  chief  charms  are  the  first  to  be  taken. 
"  Not  this  man,  but  Barabbas,"  they  cried  out  long  ago 
in  Jerusalem.  "  Now  Barabbas  was  a  robber." 

Mamma  seems  to  be  majestically  overjoyed  at  my  re- 
covery. She  honors  me  with  a  great  deal  of  magnificent 
pulse-feeling.  I  wish  she  wouldn't.  It  was  no  surprise  for 
me  to  find  myself  under  the  guardianship  of  a  hired  nurse, 
who,  by  the  bye,  will  leave  to-morrow.  Mamma  was 
not  made  for  the  undignified  drudgery  of  pouring  medi- 
cine into  feverish  mouths.  I  daresay  she  swept  through 
my  sick-chamber,  now  and  then,  with  stately  sympathy, 
or  charmed  the  doctors  by  any  amount  of  superb 
solicitude.  But  hard  matter-of-fact  nursing  is  quite 
another  affair. 

I  have  received  some  lovely  flowers  from  Margie 
Cartwright,  Cornelia  and  several  other  kind  friends, 
wherewith  to  beautify  the  hours  of  convalescence  ;  and 
John  Driscoll  has  just  sent  me  the  most  adorable  lot  of 
loose  violets.  One  has  only  to  bury  one's  nose  in  them 
and  shut  one's  eyes  and  feel  sure  that  the  nineteenth  of 
February  is  a  fantasy,  the  middle  of  May  a  fact. 

I  know  nothing  about  Fuller.  There  !  the  tears  have 
started  ;  I  thought  they  would. 

Perhaps  he  is  gone.  Perhaps  mamma  has  made  him 
vacate  the  room  next  this  and  take  some  other,  for  fear 
of  disturbing  me.  I  am  nearly  certain  that  he  has  not 
occupied  his  old  room  during  three  nights  past ;  for 


\ 

PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  28 1 

whilst  Mrs.  Blackman  thought  I  was  sound  asleep, 
these  three  past  mornings,  I  have  been  listening,  listen- 
ing, with  closed  eyes,  for  some  evidence  that  he  was 
there.  I  ought  boldly  to  ask  her  ;  but  I  dare  not  trust 
myself  to  frame  the  question,  in  my  present  state  of 
nervous  weakness.  I  do  not  know  what  surprising 
physical  result  may  take  place.  Already  the  writing  of 
this  has  given  me  a  burning  spot  in  each  cheek  and  set 
my  heart  fluttering  queerly. 

Mrs.  Blackman  has  just  come  in  and  stared  at  me 
with  dumb  disapproval.  And  so,  Diary,  we  must  part, 
for  the  present. 

Feb.  25. — I  am  so  much  better  and  stronger  !  They 
will  not  let  me  leave  my  room  yet,  but  I  have  seen 
quite  a  number  of  people.  Everybody  seems  to  have 
put  on  her  (I  have  only  had  experience,  thus  far,  in  lips 
feminine)  best  smile.  Margie,  Cornelia,  Susie  Mont- 
gomery, Kate  Effingham,  poor  Selina  Matthers — they  all 
showed  such  pleasant  warmth  of  congratulation. 

The  last  time  that  I  wrote  in  you,  Diary,  I  had  a  most 
wretched  sort  of  hysterical  attack  ;  but  that  was  five 
days  ago.  I  am  doubtless  better  able,  now,  to  touch  on 
a  certain  subject. 

And  yet  what  is  there  to  tell  ?  Nothing.  Mamma 
has  not  spoken ;  I  have  not  spoken.  Of  one  thing  I 
feel  confident,  now  :  he  does  not  occupy  the  next  room. 
I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  ask  Blanche  about  him 
twenty  distinct  times  ;  but  each  time  the  ugly  question 
sticks  in  my  throat.  Why  show  my  wound  to  Blanche  ? 
Mamma  is  the  one  to  deal  with.  I  must  speak  to  her  ; 
but  it  shall  be  after  I  have  grown  a  jot  or  two  stronger. 

One  reflection  haunts  me  so  often  :  after  lying  so  long 

"  Within  the  hollow  of  the  hand  of  death," 


282  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

how  much  better  if  the  cold  fingers  had  tightened  about  me 
crushingly  at  last !  "  How  much  better  !  "  my  thought 
keeps  repeating  to  my  thought.  I  had  nothing  to  wake 
up  and  be  well  for.  Nothing  unless  to  suffer  !  For  has 
it  not  become  with  me,  in  spirit  at  least,  even  as  though 
some  hidden  hand  had  cast  upon  me  "  the  bitter  water 
that  causeth  the  curse  ?  " 

Feb.  21. — To-day  I  went  downstairs  to  dinner,  at 
mamma's  suggestion.  I  haVe  been  well  enough  to  leave 
my  room,  if  I  had  chosen,  for  fully  three  days  past. 
But  I  dreaded  to  go,  juet  as  I  dreaded  mentioning  that 
one  subject  to  mamma. 

I  was  glad  when  mamma  gave  me  the  gentle  push 
downstairs,  as  it  were.  She  advised  me  to  dine  with 
her  this  evening;  that  was  all.  With  her;  the  word 
"  us  "  was  not  used.  When  I  went  down  I  was  prepar- 
ed not  to  see  Fuller.  And  Fuller  was  not  there. 

A  little  while  after  soup  mamma  put  forth  a  palpable 
feeler.  "  Mr.  Dobell  will  not  dine  at  home  this  even- 
ing," she  told  Henry,  and  then  shot  a  swift  glance 
at  me,  of  which  I  was  supposed  not  to  have  the  least 
consciousness.  ''Ah,"  she  went  on,  "I  see  that  you 
have  set  no  place  for  him.  I  must  have  told  you 
before.  I  had  forgotten." 

After  dinner  mamma  and  I  went  into  the  reception- 
room.  It  looked  very  cosily  pretty  and  was  a  delicious 
novelty  after  the  sameness  of  my  sick-chamber.  There 
was  not  much  light  except  what  the  fire  made,  leaping 
and  curling  about  two  or  three  huge  black  blocks  of 
coal  in  the  low  hearth-place. 

I  was  determined,  now  that  the  ice  had  been  broken, 
to  speak.  I  had  not  been  seated  more  than  three 
minutes  when  I  began  with  these  words  : 

"  Fuller  does  not  occupy  his  own  room  at  present." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


283 


I  was  staring  into  the  fire.  I  did  not  see  her  face 
when  she  answered  : 

"No.  We  both  thought  it  best  that  he  should 
change  during  your  illness.  I  gave  him  my  sitting- 
room  on  the  second-floor." 

That  was  all,  for  a  little  while.  I  waited  for  her  to 
continue,  knowing  that  she  would.  And  she  presently 
did. 

"  He  has  spoken  often,  Helen,  of  seeing  you.  But  I 
have  prevented  him  from  going  into  your  room  until 
I  had  talked  with  you  a  little." 

I  did  not  answer  for  some  time,  still  staring  into  the 
fire,  watching  the  yellow  turmoil  of  flames  and  hearing 
their  sharp  crackle.  At  length,  I  turned  toward  her, 
looking  hard  at  her  in  the  uncertain  light. 

"  You  did  well  to  delay  his  coming,  mamma.  I  don't 
want  him  to  come.  I  think  it  would  be  better  if  we 
never  met  again.  I  half  believed  that  he  had  left  the 
house  ;  and  permanently.  I  am  disappointed  to  hear  that 
this  is  not  so." 

The  words  were  just  finished  when  a  sound  came  to 
us  from  the  adjoining  hall.  The  sound  of  some  one 
entering  by  the  front  door  with  a  latch-key.  I  knew 
that  it  must  be  Fuller.  I  sat  quite  still.  There  was 
utter  silence  between  us. 

The  door  was  presently  shut  with  a  sharp  noise. 
Steps  sounded  in  the  hall.  Some  one  stood  there 
for  a  moment,  and  then  entered  the  dim  room  where  we 
sat. 

Mamma  rose.  "  Fuller,"  she  murmured,  "  here  is 
Helen." 

I  sat  perfectly  still,  staring  at  the  fire.  I  heard  him 
come  forward,  and  knew  that  he  was  standing  near  me 
a  little  while  before  he  spoke. 


284  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  are  better,"  his  voice 
addressed  me. 

I  did  not  look  up  at  him.  "  Thanks,"  I  just  returned, 
and  no  more. 

"  You  have  had  a  hard  time  of  it." 

"  Yes."     My  eyes  were  still  fixed  fireward. 

"  Will  you  not  take  my  hand  ?  I  am  offering  it  to 
you,"  he  whispered. 

And  then  I  behaved  like  a  fool.  Ah,  me !  how 
weeks  of  sickness  can  alter  one  !  I  buried  my  head  in 
my  hands  and  began  to  sob  terribly. 

It  was  a  sort  of  mild  hysteria.  When  I  had  gotten 
over  it  mamma  and  I  were  alone  together. 

"  Give  me  your  arm,  Helen,"  she  instructed,  "  and 
we  will  go  upstairs." 

We  went. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

[ARCH  9. — We  meet  constantly,  now.  We 
speak  ;  we  are,  in  a  certain  horribly  mocking 
way,  friends.  He  has  returned  to  his  custom- 
ary room.  And  I — ah,  why  did  I  ever  live  through  the 
peril  of  that  sickness  ? 

I  am  not  really  recovered  from  it  yet.  I  have  not 
half  my  old  firm  self-reliant  feeling.  Every  day  I  tell 
myself  that  I  ought  to  assert  myself ;  but  each  resolution 
ends  in  tears,  and  sometimes  a  wretched  headache  will 
follow.  Still,  I  am  better.  The  doctor  has  ceased  to 
come  for  a  week  and  more. 

Fuller  is  so  courteous  and  gentlemanly.  Now  and 
then  I  find  myself  wondering  whether  he  does  not 
regret  all  that  iniquitous  past  and  really  long  for  some- 
thing widely  different ;  whether  he  has  not  abandoned 
her ;  whether  he  does  not  wish  for  my  pardon  and  for 
all  the  sweet  joys  that  might  result  from  it.  Ever  so 
many  times  I  have  been  on  the  point  of  asking  mamma 
if  this  is  true  ;  but  the  thought  of  how  she  would 
assuredly  put  the  best  face  upon  matters,  delude  me  as  I 
feel  sure  that  she  has  deluded  me  before — as  she  has  de- 
luded me,  most  certainly,  at  Pineside,  when  she  spoke 
of  his  real  relations  with  that  woman — deters,  chills, 
and  discourages  me  from  holding  any  such  interview. 
Sober  reason  always  tells  me  that  his  kindness  and 


286  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

his  courteousness  mean  nothing  ;  that  he  is  only  trying 
to  make  me  trust  him  as  I  trusted  him  once  before ;  that 
he  persists  in  treating  me  like  a  blind  incredulous  fool. 

Well,  I  must  rouse  myself,  sooner  or  later,  in  some 
sharp  telling  way.  I  am  not  really  duped  ;  I  can  never 
be  duped  again.  Action  must  come  before  very  long. 
My  nervous  forces,  shattered  as  they  have  been,  are 
gathering  for  it. 

What  a  bitterly  galling  fetter  my  love  has  grown  to 
me  !  If  only  I  hated  him  !  Maimed  as  I  am  now,  how 
well  I  could  deal  with  him  !  It  would  be  no  sacrifice, 
then,  to  go  away  at  once.  Apart  from  him  I  should 
gain  the  very  strength  and  energy  that  I  require. 

March  24. — The  days  slip  on.  I  am  still  irresolute. 
Still  a  coward. 

April  i. — To-day  has  brought  with  it  a  most  un- 
looked-for development.  I  feel  like  one  who  has  crept 
to  the  edge  of  some  gloomy  pit  and  looked  tremblingly 
within  and  seen  serpents  crawling  there.  And  yet  in  a 
certain  way,  I  am  glad  because  of  my  bitter  experience. 
It  has  roused  me  from  my  torpor :  I  am  at  last  deter- 
mined on  doing  something.  Then,  too,  it  has  shown  me 
that  my  illness  has  not  effected  so  deep  a  physical  change, 
after  all.  Perhaps  I  shall  not  be  my  old  self  for  many 
many  months  ;  but  I  still  have  a  fair  share  of  force  and 
endurance.  I  can  act.  And  I  mean  to  act. 

This  is  how  it  occurred :  Every  evening,  of  late,  I 
have  followed  the  plan  of  leaving  the  table  after  dinner 
and  going  upstairs  into  the  yet- darkened  parlor  on  the 
floor  above,  and  there  coiling  myself  in  the  hollow  of  a 
deep  tufted  sofa  and  ceasing  to  be  of  the  world  worldly 
for  at  least  an  hour.  Henry  generally  wakes  me  up  by 
entering  for  the  purpose  of  letting  there  be  light,  illum- 
ining one  gas-jet,  discovering  by  means  of  it  my  inno- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  .  287 

cent  repose  and  being  on  the  point  of  a  respectful  re- 
treat. As  yet  neither  mamma  nor  Fuller  have  any 
knowledge  of  such  after-dinner  proceeding. 

This  evening  I  left  the  table  as  usual ;  as  usual  I  went 
upstairs,  stole  through  the  little  roomlike  hall  that  sepa- 
rates our  two  drawing-rooms,  and  found  my  soft  coil- 
ing-place  in  a  shadowy  corner  of  the  front  one. 

I  fell  asleep  ;  for  since  my  sickness  sleep  at  this  time 
renders  up  her  drowsiest  poppy-wreath  after  a  moment 
of  solicitation  ;  but  I  am  sure  that  when  I  was  awakened 
my  nap  had  only  lasted  a  little  while. 

What  roused  me  was  the  distinct  sound  of  mamma's 
voice  in  the  hall  between  the  two  rooms.  Some  slight 
light  wras  there,  but  its  effect  upon  the  darkness  sur- 
rounding myself  w^as  vague  exceedingly. 

"  I  am  opposed  to  nothing,  Fuller,  within  the  bounds 
of  reason. "  Mamma  was  evidently  at  her  majestic  best. 
"  But  now  you  are  passing  those  bounds,  and  you  can- 
not deny  it." 

Fuller's  voice,  low  and  slow  and  rather  expression- 
less :  "  I  do  not  pretend  to  deny  it.  I  am  abusing  your 
kindness.  Our  contract  has  been  violated  most  abom- 
inably— and  I  am  the  violator." 

"That  is  to  me  a  purely  hateful  subject,"  loudened 
mamma,  though  her  voice  was  still  not  forcible  enough 
to  be  heard  at  any  marked  distance.  "  You  have  men- 
tioned it  in  this  way  more  than  once,  Fuller,  and  more 
than  once  annoyed  me  by  doing  so." 

Then  he  spoke,  with  a  kind  of  bitter  bravado  : 

"  What  is  there  to  be  ashamed  of  in  the  whole  pro- 
ceeding ?  The  thing  is  done  every  day  in  European 
countries.  God  knows  what  you  saw  about  me  to  make 
you  want  me  for  a  son-in-law ;  "  (jarring  these  last 
words  with  a  faint  ironic  laugh.)  "  But  the  bargain  was 


288  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

•* 

struck  squarely  and  fairly.  Needing  money,  I  found 
myself  saleable.  And  I  sold  myself." 

(Greedily  listening,  whilst  my  heart-beats  were  mak- 
ing me  fearful  that  I  should  not  gain  every  least  word 
of  such  loathsome  disclosure,  I  sat  with  thrust-out  head 
and  locked  hands,  motionless  amid  the  darkness.) 

"  You  will  oblige  me  by  keeping  silent,  Fuller.  I, 
for  one,  have  no  pronounced  anxiety  that  either  Helen 
or  the  servants  should  hear  you." 

"  Helen  is  two  floors  above  us,  and  one  might  just  as 
well  go  through  the  farce  of  believing  that  servants  don't 
possess  ears.  I  daresay  they  all  listen  at  the  cracks  and 
crevices  whenever  they  choose  ;  but  it  certainly  makes 
us  more  comfortable  to  try  and  think  the  opposite  of 
this.  I  repeat  that  there  is  nothing  in  our  contract  to 
cause  the  remotest  shame.  Abroad,  they  almost  cry 
such  things  from  the  house-tops." 

"And  abroad  they  do  so  much  one  cannot  do  here 
with  the  least  social  safety."  Mamma's  voice  had 
roughened  huskily,  somehow.  "  Since  you  wish  to 
mention  the  terms  of  a  certain  agreement,  why  not 
recall  them  in  full  ?  You  know  very  well  what  I  mean. 
Apart  from  having  given  Helen  every  reason  for  indig- 
nant outcry,  you  have  recklessly  exceeded  the  large 
allowance  I  made  you  in  the  beginning." 

"  I  know  it.  I  offer  no  denial  of  your  statement. 
And  after  a  whole  winter  of  your  generosity,  I  come 
again  with  brand-new  demands  upon  it.  I  am  incorri- 
gible "  (repeating  that  bad  harsh  laugh).  "  It  is  just  as 
though  one  were  to  put  a  beggar  on  horseback,  and  after 
his  beggarship  had  ridden  the  animal  to  death  he  were  to 
shout  out,  with  all  the  grandeur  of  Booth  in  RicJiard 
Third,  '  Give  me  another  horse." 

A  short  silence.    Then  mamma's  voice,  full  of  trench- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  289 

ant  emphasis:  "You  spend  money  extravagantly; 
everyone  knows  that.  But  not  more  than  a  quarter  of 
the  large  sum  total  I  have  given  you,  Fuller  Dobell,  has 
been  spent  upon  yourself.  You  need  not  attempt  any 
denial  of  this.  There  is  that  woman." 

No  answer.     After  a  little  time  mamma  proceeded : 

"  Helen  was  right  in  the  resolve  she  made  just  before 
her  sickness.  On  this  side  of  the  water,  whatever  for- 
eign customs  may  be,  it  is  nothing  except  a  shameful 
outrage  to  any  woman  for  her  husband  to  do  as  you  are 
doing.  And  mark  my  words,  Fuller  :  even  if  I  shcTuld 
so  far  forget  dignity  as  to  supply  you  with  these  fresh 
funds  for  which  you  ask,  and  even  if  I  should  afterward 
continue  to  uphold  you  in  the  sad  falsehood  of  your 
present  conduct  (a  falsehood,  because  the  chief  clause 
in  our  little  compact  was  your  total  future  abandonment 
of  a  certain  connection) — even  if  all  this  should  happen, 
1^  say,  the  real  end  of  such  unjust  proceedings  would 
arrive  much  sooner  than  you  now  suspect.  Helen's 
mind  was  resolutely  made  up  when  the  sickness  seized 
hold  of  her :  every  day  is  now  giving  her  new  bodily 
strength  ;  and  notwithstanding  those  half  amiable  terms 
which  exist  at  present  between  yourself  and  her,  she 
has  not  forgotten  the  past,  and  she  means,  before  many 
weeks,  to  assert  her  recollection  of  it.  I  call  such  asser- 
tion on  Helen's  part  the  real  end  of  your  gross  miscon- 
duct, and  I  do  so  for  the  simple  reason  that  if  it  came 
to  a  question  of  whether  you  or  she  left  my  house — " 

He  interrupted  the  august  tones  right  irreverently,  at 
this  point.  "I  should  have  to  go,  of  course:  I  kruow 
that  well  enough.  And  the  money  would  stop  with  my 
departure." 

"  Precisely." 

More  silence.  The  sound  of  advancing  steps.  Was 
13 


290 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


he  coming  toward  my  retreat  ?  No  ;  his  steps  had 
turned  away  from  the  parlor  threshold,  were  taking  an 
opposite  direction.  I  soon  knew  how'  it  was  ;  he  had 
begun  pacing  that  small  circular  hall  in  which  they  had 
met  together. 

And  now  mamma  again  spoke,  her  voice  all  frigid 
severity,  yet  having  a  vague  touch  in  its  tone  of  some- 
thing like  entreaty : 

"  I  have  no  doubt,  Fuller — I  cannot  have  a  vestige 
of  doubt — that  all  this  has  occurred  to  you,  has  been 
food  for  certain  reflections  long  before  now.  You  must 
have  thought,  also,  that  the  end  of  your  difficulties 
could  easily  be  brought  about.  It  was  not  hard  to  do 
before  Helen's  illness  ;  it  is  still  not  hard.  If  you  were 
willing  to  make  the  attempt,  your  success  would  be 
rapid  and  thorough.  There  need  be  no  self-humilia- 
tion ;  no  absurd  asking  for  pardon.  You  could  go  to 
Helen  and  state  facts  plainly.  You  could  tell  her  tha^t 
although  you  had  once  broken  your  word  to  her  in  the 
matter  of  continuing  to  know  that  woman — " 

"  I  never  broke  my  word."  He  was  still  pacing  the 
floof  with  quick  firm  steps.  "  I  never  once  promised 
that  I  would  cease  to  see  her.  The  only  lie  (to  call 
things  by  their  exact  names)  which  I  have  ever  told  with 
regard  to  this  affair,  was  told  when  I  promised  you  that 
from  the  time  I  became  engaged  to  Helen  I  should 
date  my  cessation  of  a  certain  intimacy.  But  when  you 
came  to  me  after  that  adventure  in  the  Park,  with  news 
of  how  furiously  Helen  had  put  her  foot  down,  I  would 
not,  nor  could  you  make  me,  repeat  the  promise  which 
I  had  not  formerly  had  the  strength  to  keep.  What- 
ever you  then  told  Helen  you  told  on  your  own  re- 
sponsibility." 

"  Strength  to  keep!"  mamma  iterated,  in  harshest 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  29 1 

murmur.  "Your  strength  is  tenfold  greater  than  that 
part  of  it  which  you  merely  choose  to  exert,  Fuller." 

His  answer  seemed  to  me  wrenched  out  of  a  tor- 
mented spirit.  "You  understand  nothing  of  the  case. 
I  might  be  strong  enough,  myself,  never  to  go  near  her 
again,  if  only  she  would  aid  me.  But  she  doesn't  and 
will  not  aid  me.  She — " 

"  Pray  curtail  any  such  explanations,"  broke  in 
mamma's  shocked  voice.  "  Of  course  you  know  that 
they  are  not  for  My  ears.  Moreover,  we  had  better  at 
once  end  our  discussion.  If  the  one  powerful  result  of 
your  present  behavior  does  not  affect  you  on  hearing 
it  prophesied,  I  know  of  nothing  that  will." 

"  Do  you  think  it  an  easy  matter  for  me  to  break 
loose  ?  "  He  spoke  the  words  in  a  kind  of  devil-may- 
care  undertone,  so  low  that  I  could  just  catch  them  and 
no  more. 

"  You  can  break  loose,  as  you  term  it,  to-morrow,  if 
you  desire.  I  am  simply  sure  that  you  can.  And  it  is 
boyish,  it  is  doltish  for  you  to  rush  headlong  into  such 
complete  social  disaster.  You  are  not  a  man  who  can 
afford  to  pooh-pooh  the  world  :  you  love  its  good  opin- 
ion too  well  for  that ;  you  would  be  miserable  if  de- 
prived of  its  countenance.  Already  your  misdemeanors 
are  stealing  into  public  knowledge,  though  I  will  admit, 
gradually.  There  is  a  nucleus,  perhaps,  of  some  fifteen 
men  (most  of  them  your  professed  friends)  who  are 
aware  of  that  intimacy.  This  nucleus  may  enlarge  be- 
fore long,  into  something  like  notoriety.  Some  people 
affirm,  now  ;  but  some  deny.  Whilst  this  difference 
exists,  whilst  you  have  the  vast  advantage  of  being  pub- 
licly seen  in  Helen's  and  my  society,  and  whilst  you 
are  possessed  of  liberal  funds,  you  hold  at  your  com- 
mand a  perpetual  refutation  of  scandal.  But  you  know 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

New  York.  Let  all  this  end  to-morrow  :  let  it  be  said 
to-morrow  that  Fuller  Dobell  no  longer  lives  with  his 
wife  and  that  his  pockets  narrowly  escape  emptiness. 
What  would  follow  ?  The  name  you  bear  might  get 
you  noticed  at  your  club,  perhaps,  but  though  fathers 
and  sons  bowed  to  you,  mothers  and  daughters  would 
soon  look  another  way  when  you  met  them.  You  know 
New  York,  I  repeat,  with  its  curious  conflicting  laws 
and  by-laws  : — how  it  frowns  here  and  winks  there ; 
how  it  will  swallow  this  criminality,  and  make  mouths 
at  that  peccadillo  ;  how  it  is  a  sort  of  Paris  in  hobble- 
dehoyhood,  with  some  pruderies  that  are  its  vestiges  of 
virtue  and  with  many  laxities  that  are  its  inroads  of  cor- 
ruption. You  are  safe  to-day ;  you  may  be  in  dire  danger 
to-morrow.  Put  forward  one  stout  effort — break  loose 
as  you  yourself  have  called  it — and  the  result  is  certain." 

It  was  some  time  before  he  answered  her.  Whilst 
she  spoke  I  could  hear  that  he  had  stopped  walking. 
Presently  he  murmured  : 

"  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  use  of  our  talking  any 
longer." 

"  I  agree  with  you.  There  is  not."  Mamma's  tones 
were  icelike.  "  I  do  not  doubt  that  you  saw  your 
future  just  as  clearly  before  I  tried  to  show  it  you." 

"I  did." 

"  Very  well.  Our  conversation  began,  I  believe,  by 
that  request  of  yours  for  money.  You  have  largely 
overdrawn  what  was  stipulated  in  our  agreement. 
Still,  I  will  give  you  a  cheque  to-morrow  morning.  I 
cannot  say  that  I  will  do  so  again  ;  I  cannot  justify  my- 
self in  doing  so  now  ;  I  merely  give,  and  that  is  all." 

"  I  shall  not  call  upon  you  again.  You  have  my  prom- 
ise to  that  effect ;  and  you  have  never  known  me 
to  break  my  promise  but  once.  I  think  that  is  the  only 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  293 

time  I  have  ever  done  it  in  my  life,  miserably  though  I 
may  have  behaved  as  regards  other  matters."  After 
this  a  little  silence,  during  which  I  heard  the  silken  rus- 
tle of  mamma's  dress  as  she  went  upstairs.  Then,  in 
growled  savageness,  these  words  left  his  lips  : 

"  And  if  it  hadn't  been  for  that  cursed  golden  bait 
you  fished  for  me  with,  I  shouldn't  be  the  damned 
scamp  I  am  now." 

Of  course  she  did  not  hear  him  :  she  must  have  got- 
ten well  out  of  hearing  distance  by  then. 

I  have  written  too  much,  far  too  much.  My  hand 
trembles,  my  head  begins  to  ache  ;  I  scarcely  dare  write 
a  page  more. 

What  I  have  heard  has  worked  strange  change  in  me. 
I  find  myself  pitying  Fuller  passionately,  now,  and 
yearning  intensely  to  aid  him.  Perhaps  I  owe  him  dis- 
dain for  his  weakness  ;  but  I  feel  the  debt  of  a  bitterer 
disdain  toward  the  one  who  so  vilely  tempted  him  ; 
and  by  comparison  he  stands  forth  almost  guiltless. 

There  is  a  knowledge  for  which  my  inmost  soul 
thanks  God.  Coldly  and  lovelessly  as  he  holds  me  now 
and  has  held  me  all  along,  I  am  glad  with  great  glad- 
ness that  his  faults  are  faults  forgivable.  Not  that  I 
forgive  him ;  but  that  /  could  forgive  him  if,  having 
once  made  me  his  wife  with  the  miserable  motives  I 
know  about,  he  had  afterwards  learned  to  love  me  and 
regretted  past  misdeeds.  And  among  those  misdeeds 
I  no  longer  place  the  shrewd  sordid  cunning  of  a  con- 
temptible aim  to  marry  me.  No  ;  I  am  sure  now  that 
he  went  to  Pineside  with  no  such  aim  at  all ;  that 
mamma,  in  the  full  armor  of  her  calculating  heartless- 
ness,  fought  the  battle  with  his  best  manly  prejudices ; 
that  she  fished  for  him  with  the  golden  bait  of  which 
he  spoke,  selling  me  to  him.  .  .  .  No,  no  ;  I  must  not 


2Q4 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


think  of  it.     I  must  set  myself,  body  and  soul,  against 
thinking  of  it.     Such  thoughts  help  to  fill  mad-houses. 

She  pointed  out  Fuller's  possible  future  to  him  to- 
night in  words  of  telling  force.  The  idea  of  saving  him 
from  it  is  going  to  possess  me  night  and  day,  I  feel  cer- 
tain. If  he  leaves  that  woman  I  will  live  on  with  him 
as  his  wife.  I  shall  have  no  further  reason  to  go,  then 
— none,  at  least,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  we  know  and 
mingle  with.  And  even  if  hurt  pride  would  take  a  cer- 
tain cold  comfort  in  our  separation,  I  will  deny  myself 
Such  comfort  and  accept  the  sacrifice  of  sharing  his  home 
with  a  man  who  holds  me,  perhaps, 

"  Something  better  than  his  dog,  a  little  dearer  than  his  horse." 

But  if  he  still  cleaves  to  her,  we  must  separate.  And 
with  our  separation  comes  to  him  all  the  calamity 
mamma  prophesied. 

How,  then,  to  spare  him  that  calamity  ?  How  to 
devise  a  means  of  parting  these  two  ?  He  is  not  strong 
enough  to  break  loose  of  his  own  accord  ;  I  have  heard 
his  own  lips  say  so.  He  is  like  the  drunkard  who  needs 
some  one  to  drag  him  from  the  fiery  lure.  If  only  I 
could  do  it  all  myself,  without  aid  !  Yet  ah,  if  only  I 
can  do  it  at  all,  with  aid  or  without ! 

The  thought  flashes  across  me,  right  here — '  Did 
ever  woman  attempt  so  strange  a  part  as  this  I  long  to 
play  ?  Am  I  not  a  sort  of  monstrosity  among  wives  ? — 
making  pity  bloom  up  where  only  "  the  red  venomous 
flower "  of  jealousy  or  revenge  or  something  of  that 
fierce  sort  should  flourish  ?  ' 

But  how  should  it  concern  me  what  other  people 
would  do  or  think  or  desire  ?  Let  others  be  others  ; 
let  me  be  I. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

|PRIL  2. — I  am  really  writing  this  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  third.  It  is  nearly  twelve  o'clock 
and  I  have  just  breakfasted,  having  taken -all 
my  sleep  (dead-tired  sort  of  sleep,  too)  since  some  time 
in  the  early  morning.  What  hours  for  one  who  was  last 
week  calling  herself  an  invalid  !  But  how  much  worse, 
in  a  sanitary  point  of  view,  are  the  racking  excitements 
through  which  I  have  just  passed  ! 

It  makes  such  a  strange  story  ;  perhaps  the  strangest 
of  any  I  have  yet  told  in  these  pages,  where  I  fancy  that 
since  my  marriage  fact  has  been  trying  to  get  itself 
mistaken  for  fiction.  Let  me  begin  at  the  beginning, 
Diary,  like  a  good  conscientious  tale-teller. 

After  hearing  that  conversation  from  my  corner  amid 
the  darkness,  I  slipped  upstairs  to  my  own  room. 
When  mamma  followed  a  regular  custom  she  has  adopt- 
ed during  my  convalescence  of  paying  me  a  visit  just 
before  bed-time,  she  found  my  door  locked  and  was 
curtly  told  that  I  had  gone  to  bed.  It  was  true  ;  but 
in  any  case  I  would  not  have  seen  her  that  night.  My 
nerves  needed  a  little  bracing  before  we  met  again.  It 
was  like  taking  some  dreadful  dose  ;  one  cannot  toss 
that  off  bumperwise  at  a  moment's  notice. 

"  I   am  sorry,"    she   was   good   enough   to   lament, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

whilst  I  sneered  in  silence  and  was  answerless.  That 
night  I  got  much  more  sleep  than  I  hacf  looked  for  ;  the 
weakness  of  recent  illness,  I  think,  gave  it  me.  In  the 
morning  I  felt  fit  for  the  bracing-process,  more  or  less 
accomplished  it,  and  went  downstairs.  Mamma  was 
there  alone ;  Fuller  usually  appears  at  about  eleven 
o'clock,  nowadays,  and  then  (as  I  heard  him  state  not 
long  since)  goes  and  breakfasts  at  the  club. 

Mamma  was  pointedly  gracious  and  affable,  it  oc- 
curred to  me.  She  made  my  coffee  with  something 
very  like  a  full-blown  smile,  and  though  she  had  finished 
her  own  breakfast  deigned  to  watch  mine,  leaning  back 
in  her  chair  with  much  reposeful  magnificence.  I  tried 
not  to  be  anything  but  my  ordinary  self ;  I  daresay  that 
I  succeeded,  for  she  seemed  to  detect  no  atom  of  differ- 
ence in  my  behavior. 

"  I  suppose  you  don't  feel  like  going  for  a  little  while 
to-night  ?  "  she  presently  murmured,  in  suavest  interro- 
gation. 

"To-night?" 

"  You  have  certainly  heard  that  Lent  was  over  yes- 
terday and  that  there  is  the  opera-ball  to-night  at  the 
Academy  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes."  I  shook  my  head  right  decisively. 
"  But  I  should  not  think  of  going,  mamma." 

"Just  as  you  please,  of  course,"  she  acceded.  "  It 
is  for  you  to  judge  whether  the  excitement  will  be  inju- 
rious or  no.  One  of  the  tickets  will  remain  ,unused,  so 
that  if  at  the  last  moment  your  mind  is  changed  you  can 
avail  yourself  of  it.  The  ball  will  be  quite  a  superb 
affair  and  they  tell  me,  too,  strikingly  select." 

"  You  will  not  be  downstairs  among  the  masquers,  I 
suppose-.  You  will  have  a  box." 

"  Yes.     Cornelia  Walters  and  I  are  going  together. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  297 

I  daresay  Cornelia  will  desert  me  for  a  domino  during 
the  evening ;  it  is  so  like  her." 

"  If  there  is  a  shred  of  respectability  attached  to  the 
wearing  of  a  domino,"  I  returned,  "be  sure  that  Cor- 
nelia will  never  let  the  occasion  slip.  It  is  mirch  too 
tempting  a  one." 

"  Have  you  seen  the  tickets  ?  "  mamma  wanted  to 
know.  "  If  not,  stop  in  the  parlor  on  your  way  upstairs 
and  take  a  look  at  them.  They  are  so  pretty." 

"Whereabouts  in  the  parlor?"  I  asked.  I  had  no 
special  interest  in  seeing  the  tickets  ;  it  would  be  hard 
to  say  why  my  question  was  put.  But  I  had  reason  to 
remember  it  before  many  hours  had  passed. 

"  In  the  cabinet  between  the  front  windows  ;  I  for- 
get exactly  which  drawer." 

I  did  not  see  Fuller  all  through  the  day  until  dinner- 
time. And  during  the  day,  just  as  I  had  felt  sure  on 
the  previous  night  that  they  were  going  to  do,  thoughts 
persistently  possessed  me  regarding  a  means  of  saving 
Fuller.  "  I  might  be  strong  enough,  myself,  never  to 
go  near  her  again,  if  only  she  would  aid  me.  But  she 
doesn't  and  will  not  aid  me" — how  those  words  went 
and  came,  came  and  went  through  my  mind's  perplexity, 
with  stubborn  persistence  of  iteration  ! 

Was  there  not  aid  somewhere,  which  needed  merely  a 
shrewd  enough  searcher  to  find  it  ?  I  believed  so  ;  I 
could  not  help  believing  so.  Again  and  again  I  paced  my 
floor  with  hands  pressed  against  either  temple  and  with 
carpetward  eyes.  A  hundred  fragments  of  expedients 
were  formed  and  thrown  aside — maimed  worthless  ap- 
plicants for  the  work  I  desired  done,  not  one  of  them 
puissant  enough  to  serve  as  the  real  knight-errant  in 
my  cause.  Some  little  while  before  dinner-time  I  had 
at  least  reached  this  understanding  with  myself :  As  a 
13* 


298  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

powerful  means  toward  effecting  my  wishes  it  was  re- 
quisite to  gain  some  trustworthy  knowledge  regarding 
the  character  of  the  woman,  Edith  Everdell.  Possess- 
ing such  knowledge,  I  might  have  found  a  stepping- 
stone  wherewith  to  mount  up  toward  success.  Fail- 
ing to  secure  it,  my  design  might  miss  a  most  valuable 
aid. 

Could  not  Melville  Delano  supply  me  with  precisely 
the  knowledge  I  wanted  ?  Remembering  how  prompt 
had  been  his  information  on  this  same  subject,  not  long 
ago,  could  I  fail  to  think  yes  ?  As  for  John  Driscoll,  his 
friendship  with  Fuller  forbade  my  making  an  attempt  in 
his  direction.  I  do  not  mean  that  he  would  ever  abso- 
lutely serve  Fuller  in  any  work  against  my  happiness  or 
my  interest ;  I  am  convinced,  in  truth,  that  our  present 
life  together  is  a  keen  discomfort  to  him.  But  the  inti- 
macy exists  ;  and  although  Heaven  knows  he  would  be 
filling  an  almost  sacred  office  in  helping  me  to  serve  his 
friend,  still  there  is  no  denying  that  his  part  might  be 
an  awkward  one.  And  then  that  falsehood  he  told  me 
about  the  Delmonico  restaurant :  or  was  it  a  falsehood  ? 
Well,  I  cannot  blame  him  badly,  and  yet  pique  will  be 
pique.  Anyhow,  I  was  resolved  not,  if  possible,  to  try 
and  make  him  my  coadjutor. 

It  was  strongly  improbable  that  I  should  have  a 
chance  of  seeing  Melville  for  some  time  to  come.  Par- 
ties are  infrequent,  just  now,  I  told  myself,  and  I  should 
doubtless  not  find  my  way  to  any  more  at  this  fag-end 
of  the  season.  How  then  to  bring  about  a  meeting  ? 

At  dinner  there  was  quite  a  great  deal  said  regarding 
the  ball.  Fuller  stated  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  go 
with  mamma.  He  had  an  engagement  at  about  nine 
o'clock ;  should  probably  stop  at  the  club  afterwards 
and  go  with  some  of  the  men. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  299 

"At  what  time  do  you  go,  mamma?"  I  wanted  to 
know.  For  I  had  gotten  an  idea. 

"Cornelia  is  to  stop  at  eleven  precisely,  though  I 
told  her  it  was  too  early  for  a  great  public  ball  like  this." 

"  Cornelia  doesn't  want  to  miss  an  atom  of  the  fun," 
laughed  Fuller,  whilst  annihilating  an  olive.  (I  wonder, 
by  the  bye,  if  Cornelia  could  commit  any  misdeed, 
short  of  homicide,  which  in  the  eyes  of  her  brother 
would  not  be  food  for  lusty  laughter.) 

At  nine  o'clock,  or  near  it,  Fuller  left  the  house.  A 
little  while  before  he  went  I  had  given  a  note  to 
Blanche,  with  instructions  that  she  should  attend  to  its 
being  taken  immediately  to  the  club.  If  the  gentleman 
was  not  there,  I  further  instructed,  they  must  be  told  to 
forward  the  note  at  once  to  his  residence.  And  this  is 
what  I  had  written  : 

"Mv  DEAR  MR.  DELANO%: — Can  you  arrange  to  come  and  see  me  for  a 
few  moments  after  about  eleven  o'clock  this  evening  ?  I  specially  wish 
to  meet  you.  Come  if  the  Bal  d'Opcra,  or  any  other  possible  engagement, 
equally  pressing,  will  permit.  There  will  be  no  one  at  home  except  my- 
self. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  HELEN  DOBELL." 
April  2nd., Fifth  Avenue. 

I  felt  sure  that  he  would  come,  provided  only  the 
note  reached  him  in  time.  Mamma  doubtless  expected 
that  I  would  appear  in  her  dressing-room^  whilst  her 
toilette  was  being  made  ;  but  I  did  not  go.  My  mind 
was  in  a  mood  to  employ  itself  upon  other  matters  be- 
side the  nice  disposition  of  diamonds  and  the  proper 
allotment  of  laces.  Somewhat  after  eleven,  Cornelia's 
carriage  arrived,  Cornelia  herself  not  alighting.  Pres- 
ently I  heanf  mamma  descending  into  the  lower  hall/ 
Seated  in  my  own  room,  just  then,  I  looked  at  my  watch. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

It  was  a  trifle  more  than  a  quarter  past  eleven.  '  Rather 
what  the  thrilling  novels,  in  their  fine  language,  would 
call  an  unexpected  rencontre/  I  thought,  '  provided 
mamma  and  Melville  should  meet  at  the  hall-threshold.' 

But  no  such  meeting  took  place.  I  had  waited  fully 
ten  minutes  after  mamma's  departure,  and  was  on  the 
brink  of  ceasing  to  expect  him,  when  there  sounded 
a  ring  at  the  street-door.  Presently  Melville  Delano's 
card  was  brought  up  to  me. 

I  at  once  went  downstairs  on  receiving  it.  I  found 
him  in  the  front  drawing-room.  As  he  rose  and  gave 
me  his  hand,  it  flashed  across  me  how  handsome  a  man 
he  was,  after  his  own  dark  Southern-seeming  type. 
Most  men  look  well  in  full  evening-dress  ;  but  those 
who  look  very  well  never  appear  better  than  when 
apart  from  their  own  sex. 

I  seated  myself  at  his  side,  on  the  same  sofa  he  was 
occupying.  He  first  broke  silence. 

"  I  have  come  to  you  again  at  your  request,"  he 
smiled,  very  quietly. 

"  Yes.  I  am  glad  you  came."  My  words  were 
shortly  given.  The  old  feeling  was  upon  me,  I  sup- 
pose ;  the  feeling  that  has  nearly  always  made  me 
shrink  from  Melville  Delano  ever  since  I  knew  Fuller 
at  all  likingly.  His  hatred  seems  to  express  itself  in  the 
mere  sound  of  his  voice,  and  within  my  own  nature 
a  kind  of  responsive  antagonism  always  rushes  to  arms. 

"  In  what  way  can  I  be  of  use  just  now?"  The 
sneer  was  perceptible,  though  very  vaguely  so,  amid 
this  murmured  question. 

I  stared  floorward.  It  had  to  be  spoken  ;  it  might 
as  well  be  spoken  straightforwardly  and  so  gotten  over. 
"  I  wanted  to  ask  you  to  tell  me  about  that  woman — that 
Edith  Everdell." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


301 


"  Tell  you  about  her  ?  " 

My  cheeks  were  fiery,  by  then.  I  kept  my  eyes  still 
floorward.  "  Yes.  I  supposed  that  you  were  familiar 
with  her  real  character  and  surroundings.  Is  there  any- 
thing at  all " — the  words  would  hardly  come,  but  I  jerked 
them  forth — "  good  about  her  ?  " 

He  laughed  sharply  and  briefly.  "  There  ought  to 
be,  certainly.  I  am  an  optimist,  myself,  more  or  less. 
Anyhow,  I  don't  believe  what  the  cynic  says  somewhere 
in  Tennyson  : 

"  Every  heart,  when  sifted  well, 
Is  a  clot  of  warmer  dust, 
Mixed  with  cunning  sparks  of  hell." 

i 

If  every  heart  were  that,  I  wonder  how  many  sparks 
hers  would  hold  ;  "  (whilst  he  laughed  between  the 
words.) 

"  Is  she  so  very  dreadful  ?  " 

"  She  ruined  your  husband,  and  other  men  before 
she  knew  him  ;  though  he  will  not  believe  as  much — 
indeed,  would  refuse  to  believe  anything  really  bad  of 
her  if  all  the  world  stood  as  witness  for  her  depravity. 
It  is  what  people  call  an  infatuation,  I  suppose." 

I  somewhat  ceased  to  glare  upon  the  floor,  about  at 
this  stage  of  the  interview.  One  can  get  used  to  nearly 
everything,  I  should  judge  :  I  was  beginning  to  lose 
my  first  intense  diffidence.  Possibly,  too,  because  an 
intenser  curiosity  was  being  roused  within  me  every 
moment. 

"  Has  she  no  redeeming  points  ?  "  Here  my  voice 
quivered  a  little  for  very  eagerness.  "  I  mean,  do 
you  not  think  that  one  might  have  it  in  his  power 
to  work  on  her  better  nature  by  force  of  argument  or 
entreaty  or  both  ?  " 


302 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


He  began  a  faint  tattoo  on  the  crown  of  his  opera-hat. 
"  From  what  I  personally  know  of  the  woman  I 
answer  :  it  would  be  impossible.  There  are  different 
opinions,  however.  I  have  heard  it  stated  by  some  that 
she  has  a  heart  somewhere,  deep  down  in  her  nature  : 
very  deep  down,  I  should  fancy.  One  might  say  of  her 
as  of  *  Madame  la  Marquise '  : 

"  Could  we  find  out  her  heart  thro'  that  velvet  and  lace  ! 

Can  it  beat  without  ruffling  her  sumptuous  dress  ? 
She  will  show  us  her  shoulder,  her  bosom,  her  face, 
But  what  the  heart's  like,  we  must  guess." 

"  Briefly,  if  you  want  my  own  opinion,  a  person  might 
as  well  try  to  discover  cardiac  symptoms  in  that  bronze 
young  lady  on  the  mantel  yonder." 

lt  Do  you  know  her  personally  ?  " 

"  I  used  to  know  her." 

"  Ever  at  all  well?" 

"  Not  very." 

"  Then  your  statement  is  open  to  contradiction." 

"  I  have  told  you  what  some  opinions  are." 

"  Would  you  advise  me  to  make  any  attempt  toward 
persuading  her  in  the  matter  of  giving  Fuller  up  ?  " 

He  answered  rapidly,  with  most  emphatic  stress  on 
each  word:  "Indeed  I  should  not!  Such  an  appeal 
would  be  nothing  except  a  great  triumph  to  her." 

"Are  you  sure  of  that?"  I  asked,  with  keenly- 
questioning  eyes. 

He  spoke  rather  tartly  in  reply.  "  Do  you  doubt 
the  sincerity  of  my  advice,  Mrs.  Dobell?" 

Disheartenment  had  irritated  me  a  little,  perhaps; 
then,  too,  his  words  struck  a  sensitive  place — my  con- 
viction of  his  loathing  for  Fuller. 

"  Doubt  you  ?  "  was  my  slow  response.     "  I  try  not 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  303 

to  do  so.  But  then  I  remember  that  you  hate  Fuller  ; 
that  you  must  clearly  see  how  he  is  slipping  step  by 
step  into  a  miserable  future,  now  that  as  a  young  mar- 
ried man  he  still  dares  to  pursue,  here  in  New  York, 
the  same  courses  which  he  pursued  as  a  young  unmar- 
ried man  ;  and  that  the  thought  of  any  help  to  him 
from  any  quarter  must  not  at  all  please  you." 

I  spoke  whilst  staring  straight  past  Melville,  only  let- 
ting my  eyes  dwell  upon  his  face  when  I  had  finished. 
And  then  I  saw  that  his  face,  but  for  its  naturally  olive 
tinge,  would  have  been  as  white  as  the  cravat  he  wore. 

I  half  expected  one  of  his  passionate  eruptions,  from 
the  fiery  indications  his  eyes  gave  me.  But  none  came. 
I  thought  then,  as  I  think  now,  that  he  found  himself  in 
the  position,  just  at  this  moment,  of  a  man  who  sees 
suddenly  laid  bare  some  motive  which  he  has  believed 
hidden  with  complete  secrecy  ;  and  that  Melville  had 
really  meant,  in  discouraging  the  plan  I  proposed,  to 
gratify  the  demands  of  a  hard  personal  hate. 

No ;  instead  of  a  noisy  explosion  there  was  only  a 
moderate  shoulder-shrug  and  a  dimly  satiric  smile ; 
though  the  paleness  went  rather  contradictingly  with 
these  signs.  "  Do  you  remember  what  I  said  to  you  at 
the  Romeyns'  party  this  last  winter?  "he  wanted  to 
know,  with  a  voice  deep  down  in  his  throat.  "  Surely, 
if  I  am  worth  using  I  am  worth  treating  civilly  ;  and 
since  you  stoop  so  low  as  to  make  me  your  confederate, 
you  should  understand  that  your  own  condition  suffers 
a  kind  of  corresponding  declension."  After  that  he 
paused  for  a  little  time,  his  face  hardening  in  every 
feature.  "  You  are  right  in  telling  me  that  the  thought 
of  helping  your  husband  does  not  at  all  please  me." 
And  then  suddenly  the  very  fierceness  that  I  had  be- 
lieved he  would  not  show,  leapt  into  the  man's  voice 


304 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


and  manner.  "  I  do  hate  Fuller  Dobell,  just  as  you  are 
convinced  that  I  hate  him.  But  my  hatred  has  not 
prevented  me  from  pitying  you  ;  and  if,  in  making  you 
one  jot  happier  I  could  aid  him,  you  wrong  me  thor- 
oughly by  thinking  that  I  would  not  sacrifice  every 
personal  feeling  in  your  husband's  direction." 

I  laughed  coldly,  seeing  all  the  while  how  cruel  I  was. 
(Query  :  is  it  only  the  fact  of  his  hatred  for  Fuller  that 
makes  me  so  often  so  cruel  to  this  man  ?  Or  is  it  the 
knowledge  of  his  persistent  unsmothered  smouldering 
love  for  myself,  that  sometimes  frightens  me,  some- 
times chills  me,  always  keeps  me  on  my  guard  against 
an  outbreak  ?) 

"  I  am  afraid  that  your  hatred  is  the  one  feeling  up- 
permost," I  affirmed,  after  that  cold  laugh. 

"  Try  me  !  "  he  burst  forth,  bringing  his  lips  close  to 
my  face.  Then  all  on  a  sudden  I  knew  that  he  had 
seized  my  hand  and  was  deluging  it  with  kisses  many 
and  hot.  By  main  force  I  dragged  it  angrily  away. 

The  action  seemed  only  to  lend  him  fresh  passion. 
"No,  Helen  Dobell,"  the  heavy  bass  murmur  of  his 
voice  was  now  tremulously  telling  me,  "  love  is  upper- 
most, not  hatred.  How  could  I  fail  to  be  glad  that  you 
knew  of  your  husband's  treachery,  his  rascality,  his 
complete  unworthiness  ?  Like  a  wretched  fool  I  kept 
silent  when  they  were  marrying  you  to  him  ;  like  a 
wretched  fool  I  did  not  speak  the  words  that  you  must 
have  believed  and  that  would  have  saved  you  all  this 
misery.  For  after  a  little  time,  in  that  case,  when  the 
wound  of  your  discovery  was  well  healed,  who  knows 
but  that  this  deep  love  of  mine  might  have  found — " 

I  sprang  away  from  him  just  as  his  hand  was  touch- 
ing my  arm.  I  must  have  been  colorless  to  my  lips 
whilst  I  stood  facing  him,  with  furious  eyes. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  305 

"  Mr.  Delano,"  I  cried,  "  pray  remember  who  I  am." 
He  was  not  a  whit  daunted,  but  rose  also  and  made  ail 
eager  though  futile  grasp  at  my  hand.  I  was  fright- 
ened, then.  Something  almost  like  madness  seemed  to 
look  at  me  from  his  black  lurid  eyes.  I  stood  quite 
still  whilst  he  spoke  again,  staring  away  from  him,  try- 
ing to  make  my  face  rigid  and  frigid  as  stone. 

"  Oh,  Helen,  the  idea  that  you  do  really  care  for  me 
— that  you  see  the  bitter  mistake  of  your  marriage — 
that  you  regret  your  hard  treatment  and  are  willing,  in 
so  far  as  you  can,  to  amend  it — that  you  hide  under  all 
your  coldness  and  cruelty  and  the  seeming  wish  to  make 
me  your  servant,  feelings  of  a  far  different  sort — the 
idea  of  these  things,  I  say,  has  stolen  upon  me  by  slow 
degrees  since  the  first  time  we  met  after  your  marriage. 
I  told  you,  on  our  second  meeting  at  "the  opera,  that  I 
was  your  mere  tool  during  the  night  previous,  and  that 
every  smile  you  gave  me  was  given  for  some  politic 
purpose  of  your  own.  But  I  did  not  wholly  believe 
this  then  ;  I  do  not  wholly  believe  it  now.  Perhaps  my 
uncertainty  is  better  than  complete  despair,  but  I  long 
for  the  real  truth.  Think  a  moment  before  you  answer. 
Now  that  Fuller  has  shown  himself  so  meanly  unworthy 
of  you,  does  your  memory  never  revert  to  the  days 
when  my  intense  and  lifelong  love  waited  for  your  least 
sign  of  encouragement,  not  daring  to  put  itself  in 
words  ?  Have  you  no  regret — ?  " 

I  stopped  him,  then,  not  expecting  that  I  could  really 
succeed  in  doing  so.  The  result,  as  it  proved,  amazed 
me. 

"  Do  you  remember  the  note  which  you  received 
from  me  to-day?"  I  broke  in,  making  my  voice  ring 
cold  and  clear  as  smitten  metal  will  sometimes  do.  "  In 
it  I  wrote  these  words  :  There  will  be  no  one  at  home 


3o6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

except  myself.  I  think  it  was  that  which  brought  you 
here.  Otherwise  I  believe  you  would  not  be  the  coward 
you  show  yourself  now." 

Yes,  the  result  of  those  few  words  was  a  matter  to 
amaze.  All  the  fire  and  force  seemed  to  die  out  of  the 
man  on  the  instant.  He  shot  me  one  reproachful  look 
from  those  superb  eyes  of  his — a  look  that  I  was  far  too 
angry,  no  doubt,  to  value  at  its  pathetic  worth.  Then 
he  threw  himself  on  the  sofa  and  buried  his  face  in  both 
hands. 

I  began  slowly  to  walk  the  floor.  He  gave  no  evi- 
dence of  any  tearful  weakness ;  he  merely  sat  quite 
still,  with  buried  face.  I  suppose  that  fully  five  minutes 
passed  in  this  way. 

At  length  he  abruptly  uncovered  his  face,  rose  and 
drew  near  me.  I  saw  that  he  was  quite  pale  and  that 
his  eyes  had  a  dulled  saddened  look,  in  sharp  contrast 
with  their  previous  fervor. 

' '  Good  night,  Mrs.  Dobell.  I  daresay  I  have  been  very 
rude.  If  any  apology  will  be  taken  I  am  ready  to  make 
it.  You  probably  do  not  want  me  to  stay  any  longer  ?  " 

I  did  want  him  to  stay  longer.  "  If  you  will  behave 
yourself,"  I  conditioned,  severely,  "  you  will  please  me 
by  answering  a  few  more  questions." 

There  was  a  faint  irony  in  the  smile  that  just  rimmed 
his  lips.  "  I  promise  to  behave  myself." 

Somehow  his  changed  manner  had  at  once  restored 
my  confidence,  frightened  as  I  had  been  a  little  while 
ago.  Doubtless  it  was  because  I  saw  that  the  change 
had  been  genuine  and  radical  ;  that  my  slur-tipped 
Barrow  had  told  ;  that  the  odd  reckless  headlong  creature 
I  have  always  found  him  was  for  a  time  restored  to  his 
senses.  He  would  be  tractable  now,  I  felt  certain, 
through  the  rest  of  the  interview. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


307 


And  he  was.  We  seated  ourselves  again,  presently. 
"  I  wanted  to  ask  you  more  about  this  woman,"  I 
plunged.  "  How  long  has  she  known  Fuller  ?  " 

"  Seven  or  eight  years,  I  believe." 

"  Can  you  tell  me  anything  about  her  life  before  she 
met  him  ?  " 

"  No.  I  know  nothing  of  her  origin.  It  would  be 
hard  to  find  anyone  who  does,  I  think.  She  burst  upon 
New  York  suddenly  one  winter." 

"  And  her  life  since  then  ;  has  it  been  worse  than 
Fuller  believes  ?  Does  she  deceive  him  at  all,  or  is  he 
aware  of  the  exact  truth  regarding  all  her  actions? 
Pray  think  a  moment  before  you  answer  these  questions." 

"It  is  not  in  the  least  necessary;"  (with  a  light 
laugh.)  "She  is  well  known  to  make  Fuller  Dobell 
believe  that  black  is  white,  as  regards  her  own  personal 
behavior.  Grosser  deception  was  never  seen.  He 
thinks  her  a  kind  of  Eloise  ;  inprudent,  if  you  will,  but 
pardonable  because  of  her  love,  although  surrounded  by 
associates  of  her  own  sex  whose  character  he  well  knows. 
"Whilst  in  reality  she  is  much  more  like  a  sort  of  modern 
Messalina.  It  is  a  joke  among  not  a  few  of  Fuller  Do- 
bell's  friends." 

"  Why  does  no  one  open  his  eyes  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  tell.  No  one  does.  Men  are  so  punctilious 
before  each  other's  faces,  you  know,  about  minding 
their  own  business." 

"But  there  is  John  Driscoll,  at  least — Fuller's  most 
intimate  friend." 

"  John  Driscoll  is  a  man  of  the  world  ;  the  most  com- 
plete one  I  ever  met.  He  knows  the  folly  of  making 
trouble  by  unsolicited  interference.  Do  you  suppose 
that  if  John  Driscoll  attempted  to  undeceive  his  friend, 
that  friend  would  at  first  believe  him  ?  Indeed,  he 


308  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

might  not  ever  succeed  in  winning  credence  at  all. 
Anyhow,  there  would  be  a  long  fight  between  Edith 
Everdell  and  John  Driscoll.  If  I  were  betting  on  such 
a  contest  I  should  give  odds  on  the  woman's  side." 

A  silence.  Melville  took  out  his  watch.  "It  is 
nearly  twelve  o'clock,"  he  told  me.  "I  am  afraid  that 
I  shall  have  to  leave  you.  I  promised,  as  it  is,  to  be  at 
the  ball  this  evening  by  eleven." 

"duller  and  mamma  have  both  gone,"  I  made  words, 
whilst  in  a  sort  of  reverie.  Melville's  late  intelligence 
had  set  me  thinking. 

' '  Have  they  gone  together?  "he  wanted  to  know, 
with  rather  strong  emphasis. 

"No."  I  glanced  quickly  into  his  face.  "Why  do 
you  ask  ?  " 

"  Oh,  nothing."  He  rose,  then.  "  I  must  say  good- 
night once  again." 

"'This  ball  is  to  be  very  select,  is  it  not?"  I  asked, 
ignoring  his  good-night. 

"  They  tell  me  so.     But  I  have  heard,  by  the  way — " 

"  Well,  what  have  you  heard  ?  " 

"  It  was  a  mere  rumor,  and  a  whispered  one  at  that." 

"What  was  it?" 

"  That  Edith  Everdell  was  to  be  on  the  floor,  among 
the  masquers." 

"And  you  do  not  believe  it  true?  " 

"It  is  quite  possible.  If  she  expressed  the  wish  to 
go,  there  is  one  person  who  has  just  the  daring  requisite 
for  getting  her  there." 

"You  mean  Fuller?" 

"  I  mean  your  husband — yes." 

A  silent  interval.  Melville  moved  away  from  me. 
Presently,  with  his  face  and  voice  the  soul  of  com- 
posure, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  309 

"  Whether  I  have  lost  the  right  to  offer  you  advice  or 
not,"  he  murmured,  "  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  you 
wrong  yourself  miserably  by  continuing  to  live  with 
that  man.  No  woman's  dignity  should  stoop  so  low." 
Then,  seeing  me  toss  my  head  intolerantly,  he  turned, 
and  without  another  word  walked  from  the  room. 

I  forgot  him  nearly  as  soon  as  he  was  out  of  sight.  I 
do  not  even  remember  hearing  him  close  the  lower  hall- 
door.  My  mind  was  full  of  more  important  things. 
Because  this  man  had  counselled  me  to  cease  living  with 
Fuller  I  did  not  the  less  feel  intense  longings  to  save 
him.  Had  I  not  sent  for  Melville  Delano  as  a  means  of 
helping  myself  toward  this  end  ? 

And  what  chances  were  found  open  to  me  ?  Ah, 
what,  indeed  !  He  had  painted  her  a  hard  cold-souled 
creature,  on  whom  all  persuasion  would  be  wasted.  He 
had  shown  up  her  moral  life  in  the  vilest  colors,  making 
her  really  unreachable  in  the  matter  of  an  interview. 
Before,  there  had  seemed  a  spark  of  possibility  that  I 
might  meet  her  face  to  face  and  plead  Fuller's  cause ; 
but  now  there  could  be  no  such  meeting. 

Except  at  the  ball  to-night :  that  would  be  a  meeting 
not  face  to  face,  but  masque  to  masque. 

I  fell  to  pacing  the  floor  presently,  with  my  chin 
pressed  into  the  palm  of  my  hand.  Dare  I  go?  And 
yet  why  not  dare  ?  It  was  my  one  opportunity  of  ex- 
erting this  ardent  new-found  strength,  rooted  in  my  in- 
eradicable love  for  Fuller.  Better  that  I  should  try, 
even  against  such  ponderous  pressure  of  failure.  Better 
any  kind  of  effort  than  effortless  and  tame  surrender. 

I  could  go  to  the  ball  if  I  wanted.  There  was  no 
fairy  godmother  needed  to  get  me  ticket  and  masque 
and  domino  and  carriage.  A  moment's  search  among 
the  drawers  of  the  cabinet  mamma  had  indicated, 


3lO  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

brought  the  hidden  ticket  to  light.  Upstairs,  among 
my  wardrobe,  there  was  a  great  voluminous  black-silk 
domino  and  its  concomitant  masque,  which  I  had  worn 
only  about  a  year  ago  at  Mrs.  Chamberlane's  mas- 
querade. (Ah  me  !  how  time  has  slipped  along,  bring- 
ing merciless  changes  !  How  I  thrilled  triumphantly 
under  my  disguise  when  John  Driscoll,  puzzled  to  his 
finger-nails,  at  last  groaned  in  my  ear:  "  If  you  only 
satisfy  this  craving  curiosity  of  mine  and  tell  me  who 
you  are,  I  absolutely  promise  to  be  your  lifelong 
slave  !  ")  And  as  for  the  carriage,  could  not  an  imme- 
diate order  be  sent  to  John  for  the  coupe  ? 

It  was  just  for  a  moment  after  this  that  I  stood,  ticket 
in  hand,  bracing  my  courage,  as  the  runner  stands 
bracing  his  muscles  before  he  starts.  Then  I  walked 
toward  the  bell  and  rang  it. 

Enter  Henry.  In  a  little  while  I  had  given  the  order 
about  getting  the  coupe.  "And  send  Blanche  tome 
immediately,"  I  added. 

I  do  not  at  all  doubt  that  Henry  believed  me  quite 
out  of  my  head  as  he  left  the  drawing-room.  But  he 
was  his  usual  obeisant  self.  Being  such  a  perfect  ser- 
vant, very  possibly  if  I  had  gibbered  and  made  a  mouth 
at  the  end  of  my  order,  he  would  merely  have  replied 
with  the  most  respectful  of  bows. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

SHALL  want  you  to  go  with  me  in  the  car- 
riage," I  told  Blanche;  "but  that  is  all.  It  is 
not  very  nice  to  think  of  coming  home  alone  in 
a  common  hack,  but  one  is  obliged  to  take  the  first  car- 
riage that  offers  at  these  public  balls.  I  should  like  to 
have  you  in  the  dressing-room  whilst  I  take  off  my 
cloak,  and  have  you  go  with  me  as  far  as  the  ball-room 
door,  but  that  cannot  be,  I  suppose. 

Blanche  looked  virtuously  appalled.  And  was  it 
possible  that  madame  would  dare  to  go  into  the  ball- 
room quite  alone  ? 

The  thought  did  give  me  a  faint  chill ;  but  my  first 
step  had  been  taken  and  I  was  far  from  feeling  in  at  all 
a  regressive  mood. 

"Remember  that  I  shall  be  masked,"  I  laughed; 
"and  then  mamma  will  be  in  the  house,  besides — "  I 
was  going  to  add  "  Mr.  Dobell,"  but  I  felt  the  keen  ab- 
surdity and  stopped.  "By  the  bye,  Blanche,  I  have 
told  you  that  I  wish  my  going  kept  a  strict  secret  from 
mamma,  unless  I  myself  choose  to  tell  her.  If  she  hears 
that  I  have  gone  I  shall  know  from  whom  first  came  the 
information." 

Blanche  was  very  glib  with  her  copious  assurances  of 
secrecy.  My  toilette  lasted  only  a  short  time.  I  was 
ready  some  little  while  before  the  coupe  arrived.  After 


312 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


Blanche  and  I  had  entered  the  coupe  (myself  already 
masked)  I  seemed  suddenly  to  realize  the  daring  of  what 
I  was  going  to  do.  It  swept  across  me  blightingly,  as 
far  as  boldness  went ;  I  felt  all  my  fine  courage  shrivel- 
ling leafwise  under  this  abrupt  frost  of  fear.  What  if 
my  appearance  attracted  attention  ?  What  if  I  were 
grossly  insulted  ?  What  if  the  door-keeper  refused  to 
let  me  pass,  masked  as  I  was  and  quite  companionless  ? 

But  I  fought  against  the  growing  cowardice.  Noth- 
ing could  be  less  noticeable  than  my  dark  commonplace 
domino.  If  I  were  grossly  insulted  my  masque  would 
be  my  safeguard.  Should  the  door-keeper  refuse  to  ad- 
mit me  I  had  only  to  murmur  my  name,  or  at  best  mam- 
ma's :  years  of  opera-going  ought  to  advantage  me  then. 

By  the  time  that  we  stopped  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Academy  I  had  nearly  recovered  my  former  nerve.  I 
was  unprepared  for  the  staring  crowd  that  besieged  the 
door  of  the  coupe :  this  set  my  heart  beating  a  little. 
But  then  it  would  only  be  a  brisk  dash  through  the  lane 
of  persons  up  into  the  doorway  beyond. 

Just  before  we  stopped  I  began  rapidly  to  address 
Blanche.  "  I  shall  be  home  as  near  half-past  one  as 
possible.  If  mamma  or  Mr.  Dobell  reaches  home  before 
I  do,  say  nothing  about  my  absence  unless  it  is  discov- 
ered. And  if  it  is  discovered  do  not  mention  my  hav- 
ing received  any  visitor  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  even- 
ing. You  may  tell  John  that  he  is  not  to  return  for  me. 
I  could  not  find  him,  and  they  will  not  let  people  call  for 
their  own  carriages  at  these  great  balls." 

And  then  the  coupe-door  was  thrown  open  by  a 
stately  policeman.  For  a  half-second,  perhaps,  I  sat 
motionless,  feeling  myself  in  the  cold  sudden  grip  of  a 
severe  dread.  '  Shut  the  carriage-door,'  something 
seemed  to  whisper,  '  and  be  driven  home  again.' 


PURPLE  A&D  FINE  LTNEN.  3x3 

Half  a  second  is  a  mere  droplet  of  time  ;  and  yet  I  do 
not  think  my  hesitant  state  lasted  as  long  as  this.  For 
I  rose  with  teeth  clinched  behind  my  masque,  hurried 
out  on  the  pavement,  shot  through  the  throng  that  filled 
it  and  reached  the  bright-lit  regions  beyond.  The  door- 
keeper took  my  ticket  questionlessly ;  that  supposed 
peril  was  past.  I  soon  reached  the  dressing-room, 
where,  owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  I  had  prompt 
attention. 

And  now,  as  I  left  the  dressing-r6om  and  glided 
downstairs  among  the  lobbies  to  the  ball-room,  a  feel- 
ing of  strange  courageous  confidence  began  to  glow 
within  me.  It  was  almost  as  if  I  had  just  drunken  a  few 
swallows  of  rich  vein-warming  wine.  My  first  fears  had 
all  taken  wing.  The  people  whom  I  met  among  the 
lobbies  passed  me  with  scarcely  a  noticing  eye-sweep, 
all  the  men  being  unmasked,  all  the  women  masked. 
Evidently  I  was  free  to  move  here,  there,  everywhere, 
without  my  black  unconspicuous  domino  doing  more 
than  just  form  material  for  careless  observance. 

This  confidence  grew  a  reckless  daring  when  I  entered 
the  ball-room.  The  glitter  and  gayety  would  in  any 
case  have  excited  me,  after  the  utter  quiet  in  which  I* 
had  been  living.  But  added  to  excitement  I  felt  a  spirit 
of  bitter  mischief  possess  and  animate  me.  It  was  be- 
cause of  my  dull  heartache,  doubtless.  When  one  is 
miserable  as  I  was,  the  best  amusement  one  can  get  is 
a  sort  of  cynic  amusement,  I  suppose.  Everywhere 
about  me  were  men  whom  I  knew ;  concerning  many 
of  them  I  knew  scandalous  things. 

Having  had  this  whole  quiverful  of  arrows  handed  me 
by  circumstance,  so  to  speak,  why  not  empty  it  whilst 
I  searched  for  her  whom  I  had  come  to  find  ? 

I  did  empty  it.     Just  at  my  elbow  stood  Charley  Ber- 
14 


314  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

tram,  in  a  little  throng  of  intimates.  I  fixed  fearless  eyes 
upon  him. 

"Well,  Mr.  Bertram,"  my  disguised  voice  saluted 
him. 

"Well,  madam,"  he  replied,  with  imm6nse  civility. 

"  Can't  you  get  anybody  to  help  you  back  to  Eng- 
land ?  It's  really  dreadful.  You  only  need  a  few  more 
years  of  training  in  the  mother-country.  As  it  is,  you 
know,  you're  neither  one  thing  nor  the  other." 

I  turned  and  slipped  away  just  in  time  to  see  the 
smiles  on  his  friends'  faces  and  the  half-controlled  rage 
on  my  victim's. 

After  that  I  searched  for  a  little  while,  scrutinizing 
every  woman  whom  I  met.  There  was  not  one  who 
had  her  walk ;  not  one  whose  height  and  figure  and 
general  movements  made  me  do  anything  but  doubt  if 
it  were  she.  Then  I  began  to  scatter  my  impertinences 
broadcast,  still  searching,  searching.  Here  stood  Aleck 
Sheffield,  good  pleasant  nonentity,  who  has  never  done 
me  an  ill  turn  in  all  our  ball-room  acquaintance  to- 
gether :  yet  I  was  merciless,  craven-hearted.  "  Is  it  true 
that  you  wear  stays  ?  "  I  wanted  to  know,  tapping  him 
on  the  shoulder.  "I've  never  believed  it,  but  nearly 
everybody  else  does."  And  I  vanished  from  him  just  as 
the  color  was  surging  up  furiously  to  his  blond  hair. 

Search,  search. 

There  stood  that  pompous  old  Jacob  Holladay,  who 
ranks  himself  about  the  supremest  social  potentate  in 
all  New  York,  having  himself  fawned  upon  by  a  little 
court  of  men  and  women.  Respectability  diffused  it- 
self from  the  feathery  gray  of  his  chin-divided  beard  to 
his  golden  festoon  of  watch-chain,  and  thence  downward 
in  a  rather  curved  course  (for  he  has  marked  stomachic 
attributes)  to  his  lustrous  shoes.  "  Nobody  can  under- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


315 


stand  what  you  see  to  admire  in  that  ugly  little  actress 
at  Niblo's,"  I  dared  to  rattle  off,  as  I  darted  past  him  ; 
and  by  the  glance  shot  over  my  shoulder  I  saw  his 
Olympian  brows  gather  and  his  face  take  quite  an  apo- 
plectic hue. 

Search,  search. 

"  They  call  you  Mrs.  Louis  Walters'  bouquet-holder/' 
I  snarled  in  the  startled  ear  of  Summerby.  .  .  .  "Give 
up  fortune-hunting,"  I  hissed  to  Johnny  Wilcoxson, 
"  and  perhaps  you  won't  be  jilted  nearly  every  season." 
.  .  .  .  "  Why  are  you  such  a  thorough-going  snob  ?"  I 
wanted  to  know  of  Winny  Westerveldt.  "  It's  current- 
ly reported  that  you  boasted  of  passing  through  college 
without  speaking  to  but  three  men  in  your  class." 

Search,  search. 

"Is  it  a  fact,"  I  questioned  of  Harry  Averill,  "that 
you  cut  an  intimate  friend  for  presuming  to  import  and 
wear  a  pair  of  trowsers  precisely  like  one  of  your  own?" 
.  .  .  .  "  If  you  wish  to  know  why  everybody  asks  you 
to  lead  cotillons  everywhere,"  I  sneered  in  the  ear  of 
Willie  Gregory,  "  don't  look  an  inch  higher  than  your 
heels  for  the  reason."  .  .  .  .  "  Have  you  found  out  the 
cause  yet  of  your  being  so  badly  treated  at  parties  ?  "  I 
confidentially  murmured  to  Fred  Martelle.  "  Don't  ask 
ladies  to  dance  with  you  after  more  than  two  glasses  of 
wine  ;  depend  upon  it,  that  is  about  your  limit." 

Search,  search. 

It  seemed  as  if  I  had  no  chance  of  finding  her.  Per- 
haps she  was  not  there.  Melville  Delano  had  merely 
spoken  of  her  coming  as  a  probability,  and  not  a  very 
strong  one,  either.  Presently  I  caught  a  glimpse  of 
Frank  Meredith's  bluff  queer  little  person.  He  would 
be  sure  to  know  if  she  were  on  the  floor,  provided  any 
one  knew.  Dare  I  ask  him  ? 


316  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

But  I  was  in  just  a  mood  to  dare  do  anything,  then. 
Up  to  his  side  I  glided.  "  Mr.  Meredith  ?  " 

All  his  handsome  wine-reddened  face,  with  its  jaunty 
little  brass-colored  moustache,  broke  wrinkingly  into  one 
large  smile.  "  At  your  service,  Mrs.  Anybody." 

"  Mrs.  Somebody,  eef  you  please,"  I  objected,  in  the 
Frenchest  sort  of  broken  English  I  could  master.  "  I 
want  to  ask  you  a  dreadfule  question.  Ah,  it  ees  so 
dreadfule  !  Will  you  promise  to  answer  it  for  me  and 
then  to  let  me  go  in  peace  ?  " 

He  peered  into  my  masque  as  though  his  funny  black 
eyes  could  pierce  it  needle  wise.  "  I  shall  do  all  that  I 
am  able,  pray  believe,  rny  charming  little  Frenchwoman. 
If  I  could  only  say  with  one  of  your  own  poets  : 

"  Ah  fine  bar  be  de  dentelle, 
Que  fait  voler  un  souffle  pur^ 
Get  arpege  m'a  dit :  "  Cest  elle  ! 
Malgre  tes  reseaux,  j'en  suis  stir." 

But  I  can't,  unluckily." 

"  If  I  were  to  seeng  anything  for  you,"  I  laughed, 
"  it  wouldn't  at  all  favor  the  recogneetion.  My  voice 
could  wreeng  contempt  from  a  peacock.  Are  you  ready 
for  ze  question,  monsieur  ?  " 

"  Entirely." 

"  Wel^  I  want  to  ask  if  you  know  a  certaine  not  nice 
woman  by  sight ; — not  nice  at  all.  Edeeth  Everdell, 
she  is  called.  You  know  her  ?  " 

"Perfectly." 

"Is  she  hefe  to-night?" 

"She  is  here." 

"  Will  you  point  her  out  ?  " 

"  She  is  just  at  your  elbow,  madame.  There  is  no 
mistaking  that  figure  and  carriage,  especially  as  her 
domino  shows  both  very  plainly." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

No  mistaking  them  indeed  !  I  had  not  seen  her  until 
now.  I  am  nearly  certain  that  I  should  have  known 
her,  had  we  met  previously,  without  Mr.  Meredith's 
help.  Two  or  three  men  were  about  her.  I  hurried 
away,  keeping  her  in  sight,  not  wishing,  if  possible,  that 
Frank  Meredith  should  see  me  addressing  her  after  what 
had  just  passed. 

A  sudden  disheartenment  had  seized  me.  After  all,  I 
asked  myself,  would  it  be  possible  for  me  to  get  her  at- 
tention as  long  as  I  wished  it  ?  And  even  then  how  wild, 
how  vain  the  hope  of  even  changing  her  by  word  of  mine  ! 

Well,  well,  I  could  but  try.  Presently  I  slipped  up 
to  where  she  was  standing.  Frank  Meredith  was  some 
distance  off,  by  this  time.  I  drew  nearer,  nearer.  A 
sweet  rich  rippling  laugh  was  just  leaving  her  lips,  clear- 
heard  above  the  music,  when  I  at  length  stood  beside 
her.  "I  want  to  speak  with  you  for  a  little  while,  if 
you  will  let  me,"  I  murmured.  I  did  not  disguise  my 
voice,  feeling  that  there  was  no  need. 

"  With  me  ?  "  was  the  low  response  ;  too  low  for  her 
surrounders  to  hear.  "  How  odd.  I  didn't  suppose 
that  any  of  my  own  sex  here  this  evening  were  any- 
thing but  oppositely  inclined."  (Then  a  light  little 
laugh.)  "  You  see  that  I  dare  to  hint  who  I  am." 

"  I  know  who  you  are,"  I  answered.  "  Will  you 
come?" 

"  Come  where,  Madam  Mystery  ?  " 

"Not  out  of  the  ball-room,  but  where  we  can  talk  to- 
gether a  little  more  privately — away  from  these  gentle- 
men." 

How  her  eyes  fixed  themselves  upon  mine  !  I  almost 
quailed  under  their  cold  bold  brilliance.  "  Very  well," 
she  presently  murmured,  in  slow  puzzled  style.  "  I 
will  go  with  you." 


318  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

1  moved  away,  at  this,  looking  across  my  shoulder  to 
see  if  she  would  follow.  She  left  at  once  the  small 
group  of  men,  waving  one  or  two  of  them  back  with  a 
little  gesture  of  disdainful  grace. 

I  found  an  almost  vacant  line  of  seats  near  the  wall, 
under  the  ceiling  of  the  upper  tier,  and  beyond  the  real 
limits  of  the  ball-room.  My  heart  made  rapid  throbs 
as  I  watched  her  seat  herself  at  my  side.  No  one  could 
overhear  us  ;  we  were  unnoticed  of  anyone,  now  ;  we 
were  virtually  closeted  with  each  other,  private  amid  all 
this  publicity. 

How  should  I  begin  ?  Let  there  be  no  wordy  flour- 
ishes. Hopeless  as  my  cause  was,  let  me  at  least  urge  it 
with  hardy  straightforwardness. 

"  You  are  Edith  Everdell,"  I  plunged. 

"  I  am  Edith  Everdell." 

"  Did  Fuller  Dobell  bring  you  here  to-night  ?  " 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders.  "I  choose  to  answer 
no  such  questions.  I  came  here  ;  that  ought  to  satisfy 
you." 

"  You  refuse  to  answer  any  questions  concerning  Ful- 
ler Dobell  ?  "  I  made  my  voice  even-toned,  tranquilly 
emphatic.  "Then  you  will  not  tell  me  why  you  are 
doing  your  best  to  break  his  wife's  heart." 

I  knew  instantly  that  my  words  were  an  unforeseen, 
lunge  to  her :  the  sudden  start  she  gave  told  me  this. 
Yet  a  little  laugh,  like  nothing  but  the  quintessence  of 
scorn,  broke  through  the  lace-fall  of  her  masque  almost 
instantly. 

"  I  feel  honored  at  being  considered  of  so  'much  im- 
portance in  Mrs.  Dobell's  eyes." 

"  You  are  of  great  importance,"  I  stated,  stifling  the 
anger  that  began  at  once  to  swell  my  heart.  "  She 
recognizes  and  admits  your  beauty,  your  cleverness, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  319 

your  power  over  her  husband.  She  would  never  have 
married  that  husband  if  she  had  known  you  held  such 
power."  m 

"  Pshaw!"  A  sneer  mixed  itself  harshly  with  her 
mellow  melodious  tones.  "  She  would  have  married 
him  anyhow  :  pray  don't  try  and  deceive  me  with  any 
such  plausible  stuff  as  that." 

"  I  assure  you  she  would  have  done  nothing  of  the 
sort." 

"  But  in  any  case  her  mother  would  have  made  her. 
It  was  a  matter  of  plain  give  and  take.  Those  Jeffreys 
wanted  the  prestige  of  the  connection.  I  know  Mrs. 
Jeffreys'  type,  if  you  please  :  I  have  seen  it  before  now 
— occasionally,  too,  (in  different  times  and  in  a  different 
city)  laughed  at  it  as  we  laugh  at  amusing  inferiors.  I 
suppose  you  are  some  friend  of  Mrs.  Dobell's.  It 
hardly  seems  possible  that  you  can  be  Mrs.  .Dobell  her- 
self." 

"  You  have  guessed  rightly.  I  am. a  friend  of  Mrs. 
Dobell's  ;  I  am  also  a  friend  of  her  husband.  I  desire 
to  aid  them  both,  but  chiefly  him.  He  is  on  the  verge 
of  a  most  miserable  condition.  If  his  intimacy  with 
you  continues  many  weeks  longer,  his  wife  will  have 
ceased  to  live  with  him,  he  will  have  lost  money  and 
caste,  he  will  hold  an  almost  pitiable  place  compared  to 
that  which  he  holds  now.  For  this  reason  I  have  re- 
solved to  plead  with  you  in  his  behalf.  I  have  resolved 
to  beg  of  you  that  you  will  cease  knowing  him.  Mrs. 
Dobell  does  not  require  her  husband's  love  :  she  merely 
requires  that  his  infidelity  shall  not  render  her  marriage 
the  burlesque  it  has  become,  and  that  the  world  shall 
not  make  her  a  laughing-stock  because  of  her  husband's 
behavior.  Fuller  Dobell  has  only  to  take  one  step  in 
freeing  himself  from  danger.  Will  you  counsel  him  to 


320 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


take  that  step,  or  will  you  coldly  lead  him  past  his  op- 
portunity ?  God  knows  he  deserves  to  be  far  less  leni- 
ently dealt  with  !  " 

"  Less  leniently  dealt  with !  "  she  iterated,  in  sting- 
ing mockery  of  voice.  "  And  by  whom,  pray?  By 
the  wife  who  is  most  probably  his  match  in  all  wrong- 
doing, although  she  plasters  her  deeds  over  with  a  trifle 
more  discretion  ?  " 

I  felt  my  cheeks  burn  tinglingly  beneath  my  masque. 
I  was  angry  with  much  anger.  I  think  it  marvellous 
that  I  kept  my  passion  within  bounds,  right  here,  con- 
sidering how  it  tugged  to  break  restraints. 

"  Have  you  an  atom  of  proof,"  I  asked,  finding  strong 
difficulty  in  getting  the  words  spoken,  "  that  Mrs.  Do- 
bell's  character  is  not  quite  above  suspicion  ?  " 

"Proof!"  she  laughed,  with  caustic  force.  "Who 
cares  for  proof?  Not  I,  indeed  !  I  am  no  such  fool 
that  I  cannot  use  the  few  senses  I  have  had  given  me. 
I  know  the  kind  of  life  she  lives,  and  the  men  and 
women  who  help  her  live  it.  They  are  all  alike,  and 
she  k-  one  of  them.  They  have  immense  resources  of 
concealment— that  is  about  the  only  way  in  which  they 
differ  from  other  sinners.  They  are  so  respectable,  you 
know,  and  so  finely  educated  !  Who  could  suspect  them 
of  any  real  harm  ?  Fast  ?  oh,  yes  ;  undoubtedly  fast. 
But  fast,  after  all,  means  so  little  !  Meanwhile  their 
wealth  and  that  farce  of  their  position  covers  multitudes 
of  abominations." 

I  ought  to  have  gone  away  then — before  then.  An 
excellent  safeguard  against  making  a  fool  of  oneself  is 
to  know  precisely  when  one  is  going  to  do  it.  I  had 
such  prescience,  beyond  any  doubt.  Whilst  she  was 
speaking  I  had  experienced  the  infallible  signs  of  hav- 
ing cheeks  that  had  grown  fire-coals  and  a  heart  that 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

has  gotten  to  beat  gallopingly  and  to  feel  as  if  it  only 
lacked  about  an  inch  of  your  throat.  I  should  have  un- 
derstood these  symptoms  ;  I  have  had  them  before,  in 
greater  or  less  degrees. 

Instead  of  going  away,  I  staid  and  answered  with  all 
possible  heat : 

"  You  merely  show  an  absurd  ignorance  when  you 
talk  like  that.  All  women  of  your  stamp  talk  so,  I  have 
often  heard.  I  suppose  it  is  a  way  they  have  of  easing 
their  consciences  for  the  atrocities  they  commit.  Then, 
too,  things  are  apt  to  appear  pretty  black  when  we  look 
at  them  through  the  burnt-glass  of  our  own  depravity." 

Every  vestige  of  music  had  left  her  voice,  as  her  reply 
rang  rapidly.  "Whatever  stamp  I  may  wear  now,  I 
once  wore  the  stamp  of  your  so-styled  respectability. 
I  have  known  the  classes  to  which  you  doubtless  pride 
yourself  upon  belonging  ;  and  I  found  them  liars  and 
hypocrites  through  and  through." 

"  I  don't  believe  you,"  I  flashed.  "  If  you  had  ever 
belonged  among  really  respectable  people  you  would 
still  bear  some  moral  traces  of  your  past  life.  You 
would  at  least  not  be  the  gross  deceiver  you  are." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Do  you  suppose  that  you  can  continue  much  longer 
to  throw  dust  in  Fuller  Dobell's  eyes  ?  "  I  rushed  on, 
without  noticing  her  quick  hoarsely-spoken  question. 
"You  know  very  well  that  he  believes  you  love  him 
and  that  he  believes  this  love  the  only  stain  upon  your 
purity.  And  in  reality  you  r..*e  the  precise  horrible  re- 
verse of  what  he  thinks.  No  wonder  that  you  dare 
slander  Mrs.  Dobell."  (I  rose  here,  for  a  dim  gleam  of 
prudence  had  begun  to  break  skywise  through  my 
storm  of  passion.)  "  How  should  such  a  creature  as 
you  are  do  anything  but  deal  in  falsehood  ?  " 
14* 


322 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


It  was  just  as  I  finished  speaking  that  she  sprang  up 
from  her  seat  and  came  very  close  to  me.  "  Perhaps 
you  think  you  can  say  these  things  with  safety,"  she 
hurried,  her  voice  sounding  all  husky  and  rage- 
choked,  "  because  I  am  here  where  I  have  no  business 
to  be — here  among  your  own  company  of  more  success- 
ful evil-doers.  But  I  warn  you — " 

And  then  I  was  out  of  hearing,  having  slipped  away 
from  her  and  hastened  toward  the  multitude.  For  a 
little  space  I  wandered  about,  (passing  Fuller,  just  at 
this  time,  with  some  unknown  masque  on  his  arm) 
whilst  bitterest  qualms  of  self-reproach  momently  assailed 
me  with  greater  force. 

And  so  I  had  made  a  most  wretched  failure.  Was 
not  the  failure  more  than  half  my  own  fault  ?  Had  I 
not  thrown  away  recklessly  even  my  one  vague  little 
chance  of  influencing  this  woman  ?  Now  that  the  "  heat 
and  flame  of  my  distemper"  were  cooling,  I  began  to 
call  myself  fool  with  despondent  emphasis. 

Suddenly  a  hand  touched  my  shoulder,  I  looked 
quickly  round.  She  had  followed  and  found  me  again. 
Her  voice  seemed  more  husky,  more  rage-choked  than 
ever,  as  she  now  addressed  me. 

"Whoever  you  are,  whether  Fuller  Dobell's  wife  or 
some  messenger  of  hers,  I  want  you  to  know  this  :  I 
shall  hold  fast  of  Fuller  Dobell  as  long  as  I  can,  and  I 
do  not  mean  that  anybody  in  all  New  York  shall 
frighten  me  into  giving  him  up.  As  for  his  wife,  who 
doubtless  married  him  with  an  idea  that  I  was  an  en- 
cumbrance of  no  possible  importance  and  that  I  was 
promptly  to  be  suppressed  and  put  out  of  the  way  after 
his  marriage,  let  her  and  let  that  grand  old  snob,  her 
mother,  (now  fanning  herself  so  superbly  upstairs  in 
yonder  box)  understand  that  each  has  reckoned  wrongly 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


323 


in  her  shrewd  matrimonial  scheme,  and  that  I  am  not 
quite  so  easily  waived  aside  and  forgotten  as  some  few 
other  of  Mr.  Dobell's  bachelor-peccadilloes.  I  naturally 
hated  Mrs.  Dobell,  not  for  being  his  wife  but  because 
her  influence  drew  him  away  from  me  a  little  while,  and 
made  me  fight  to  regain  him.  But  I  never  really  feared 
her ;  and  I  tried  to  show  her  this  three  or  four  times  : 
once  in  Stewart's  store,  once  during  that  absurd  break- 
down in  the  Park  where  she  behaved  like  such  a  child- 
ish fo.ol,  and  once  again  when  we  met  in  Delmonico's. 
No  ;  I  never  feared  her.  Bear  this  message,  if  you  are 
not  Mrs.  Dobell  herself,  as  I  believe  you*are  not.  Say 
that  I  am  a  rock,  and  she  needn't  bruise  her  nice  white 
fingers  trying  to  budge  me." 

"  You  need  have  no  fear  that  she  will  try,"  came 
my  response,  in  a  kind  of  composed  mutter.  "There 
are  other  ways  of  working  besides  with  one's  fingers. 
Fuller  Dobell  may  be  grossly  infatuated,  but  black  is 
black  and  white  is  white,  and  he  must  believe  his  own 
senses.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  convincing  a  man 
against  his  will,  provided  he  be  of  sound  intellect." 

I  was  hurrying  away  when  she  caught  the  sleeve  of 
my  domino.  "Who  are  you?"  Her  voice  was  that 
of  a  woman  whom  fury  has  well  in  its  hot  hold.  "  I 
must  know.  I  shall  know." 

And  whilst  speaking  she  made  a  sudden  dash  toward 
my  masque  with  her  right  hand,  as  though  to  tear  it 
from  my  face. 

Luckily  I  saw  her  hand  lift  itself  just  in  time  for  the 
proper  evasive  swerve.  I  remember  feeling  miserably 
frightened  as  I  sped  through  the  crowd  after  that,  eager 
to  mix  myself  therewith  and  so  permanently  escape  her. 
All  my  past  daring  and  hardihood  and  confidence  had 
vanished  mistwise,  now ;  for  they  were  all  a  bravery 


324  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

that  only  had  root  in  my  incognita,  and  the  assault  upon 
this  struck  them  a  life-blow. 

There  had  been  something  tigerlike  in  the  woman's 
gesture.  She  was  in  a  passion  and  had  nothing  to  lose  : 
under  circumstances  of  this  favoring  character  it  would 
be  difficult  to  say  what  limit  of  recklessness  she  would 
pause  at. 

I  should  have  gone  immediately  out  into  the  hall  and 
made  an  attempt  to  obtain  a  carriage,  had  not  a  feeling 
of  dread  prevented  this  step.  How  could  I  tell  that  she 
might  not  follow  me  and  commit  a  fresh  assault,  in  her 
'headlong  fury*? 

No  ;  it  was  best  to  make  sure  that  I  had  lost  myself 
to  her.  Then  home  with  all  the  expedition  attainable. 
Home  without  even  getting  my  cloak  from  upstairs. 
Home,  indeed  !  And  why  had  I  ever  at  all  been  idiot 
enough  to  leave  home  ? 

At  length,  after  liberal  gliding  about  here,  there,  every- 
where, I  came  to  a  stand-still,  looked  around  me  and 
waited.  Heavens  !  there  she  stood  also,  not  ten  yards 
off,  evidently  believing  herself  in  efficient  ambuscade  be- 
hind a  stout  blue  domino,  and  evidently  watching  me. 

I  did  more  hurrying  about,  with  similar  results.  For 
a  third  time  I  made  myself  the  most  active  sort  of 
nomad,  and  a  very  will-o'-the-wisp,  besides,  in  the 
matter  of  deceptive  turns  and  transits.  This  final  effort 
lasted  quite  a  while,  half  because  I  had  resolved  that  it 
should  be  final,  and  that  after  it  I  should  in  any  case 
make  an  attempt  to  get  home ;  and  half  because  I 
dreaded  to  stop  and  take  my  third  outlook. 

As  it  was  I  stopped,  but  no  outlook  followed.  There 
was  none  necessary.  For  I  had  no  sooner  ceased 
moving  than  something  caught  my  sleeve,  and  there 
she  stood,  unescapable  as  fate,  close  at  my  side  again ! 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


325 


I  dragged  my  sleeve  away  whilst  she  burst  forth  in 
the  same  low  roughened  rageful  voice : 

"  I  shall  find  out  who  you  are.  I  know  I'm  a  devil 
when  I'm  angry,  and  your  fine  threats  have  made  me 
so  now.  Or  if  not  angry,  curious  to — 

She  would  have  finished  her  sentence  by  tearing  off 
my  masque.  Heaven  knows  how  I  ever  had  the  quick- 
ness to  escape  for  the  second  time  that  sudden  and  swift 
dash  of  her  hand.  I  think  that  the  fact  of  my  having 
survived  the  first  attack  unscathed  was  a  reason  for  my 
having  defeated  the  second.  Anyhow,  I  know  that 
before  she  had  more  than  quarter  accomplished  her 
ugly  fierce  faceward  plunge,  I  had  gotten  well  beyond 
her  reach. 

After  that  I  rushed  blindly,  dizzily,  straight  against  a 
gentleman. 

"  Pray  excuse  me,"  I  murmured,  not  looking  up. 

"  I  thought  I  knew  your  walk,"  whispered  Melville 
Delano,  quietly,  "  when  you  passed  me  a  little  while 
ago.  But  I  am  sure  now  that  I  know  your  voice,  Mrs. 
Dobell." 

I  caught  his  arm  with  force.  a  Since  you  know  me, 
help  me." 

He  lifted  puzzled  brows  ;  doubtless  because  my  voice 
was  so  fearful  and  tremulous.  Then  a  slight  smile 
played  about  his  mouth.  "  I  am  doubly  fortunate  this 
evening,  am  I  not  ?  In  what  way  do  you  require 
help  ?  " 

I  motioned  with  my  head  toward  where  she  was 
standing,  her  eyes  leveled  in  hard  stare  upon  Melville, 
and  seeming  wholly  undismayed  at  my  present  course, 
to  judge  from  her  nearness  and  a  certain  defiant  poise 
of  her  head.  "That  woman,"  I  galloped,  ''has  twice 
tried  to  tear  off  my  masque.  I  came  here  because  you 


326 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


told  me  that  you  thought  she  would  be  among  the 
guests.  We  had  some  conversation  together,  and  it 
has  resulted  in  this." 

"  In  what?"  His  brows  had  begun  to  knit  them- 
selves darkly,  and  those  thin,  nostrils  of  his  to  quiver 
queerly. 

"  Why,  in  her  following  me  about  wherever  I  go  and 
making  *hese  dreadful  assaults  upon  me.  She  says  she 
is  determined  to  find  out  who  I  am.  I  feel  afraid,  be- 
cause of  her  behavior,  to  leave  the  ball-room.  And  I 
want  to  get  home  with  all  speed.  Can't  you  put  me 
into  a  carriage  and  send  me  there?  " 

"  Certainly."  He  offered  his  arm,  which  I  took  with 
glad  eagerness.  "  I  will  ride  home  with  you  myself. 
It  was  a  wild  idea,  your  coming  alone  ! "  Whilst  speak- 
ing his  eyes  were  steadily  riveted  upon  Edith  Everdell, 
who  stood  immovable,  staring  at  him  in  return. 

Melville  drew  me  directly  toward  her,  as  if  to  show 
how  resolved  he  was  in  the  matter  of  protecting  me 
against  any  further  insolence.  She  never  budged  as  we 
passed  her,  only  following  us  with  her  eyes,  in  an  un- 
lessened  scrutiny.  I  was  on  the  side  farthest  away 
from  her  and  relieved  to  be  there. 

We  had  perhaps  taken  twenty  steps,  after  that,  when 
I  turned  and  glanced  across  my  shoulder.  "  Heavens  ! " 
I  murmured,  nervously,  "  she  is  close  behind  us." 

Melville  wheeled  about  on  the  instant,  whilst  I  clung 
to  his  arm.  He  was  in  one  of  his  passions,  unless  his 
fierce  clouded  face  told  a  wholly  wrong  story. 

The  music  had  just  stopped.  Above  the  babble  of 
many  encompassing  voices  Melville's  voice  rang  out 
harsh  and  hard. 

"  You  have  no^business  to  follow  this  lady  and  insult 
her  as  you  have  done." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


327 


She  drew  suddenly  backward,  as  though  his  abrupt 
attack  was  a  most  unforeseen  one.  Several  people 
about  us  who  had  heard  Melville's  loud  aggressive  voice 
if  they  had  failed  precisely  to  catch  his  words,  began  to 
draw  nearer  and  to  stare  very  curiously. 

But  after  that  sudden  withdrawal  and  after  standing 
for  a  moment  as  though  irresolute,  she  tossed  her  head 
with  an  impetuous  force  and  came  several  steps  forward 
again.  Then  she  spoke  in  that  same  low  furious  voice  : 
I  have  never  known  a  voice  express  deeper  rage,  half 
smothered  though  it  was  : 

"  The  person  you  are  with  insulted  me  first,  if  you 
please,  undercover  of  her  masque." 

"  Come,"  I  whispered,  excitedly,  to  Melville.  "  Peo- 
ple are  beginning  to  notice  us.  Pray  come." 

"  She  offered  you  no  personal  violence,  whatever  she 
may  have  said,"  flashed  Melville's  sharp  retort.  "  And 
you  will  oblige  us  both  by  ceasing  to  follow  us." 

Whereupon  she  drew  nearer  yet.  "  I  shall  go  where 
'I  choose  to  go,  and  ask  from  you,  sir,  no  permission  in 
the  matter  of  my  going." 

Both  voices  had  been  very  loud.  There  was  quite  a 
little  audience  gathered  about  us,  now.  "  For  Heaven's 
sake  come,"  I  moaned  at  Melville's  side,  pulling  at  the 
arm  which  did  not  yield  a  jot. 

"  You  dare  to  tell  me,"  he  cried,  "  that  you  will 
again  attempt  to  unmask  this  lady  ?  " 

"  And  suppose  I  do  dare,"  she  flung  back. 

"  Only  this  :  that  if  you  make  such  an  attempt  once 
again  I  will  have  you  removed  from  the  floor.  Most  of 
the  committee  must  be  much  mortified  as  it  is  to  know 
of  your  presence  here  to-night.  And  whoever  brought 
you  here  deserves  the  censure  of  all  respectable  attend- 
ants." 


328 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


"  I  beg  of  you  to  come,"  I  faltered,  getting  weak 
with  alarm  ;  for  now  we  were  the  centre  of  a  thick 
throng. 

My  voice  seemed  to  touch  him  with  a  sudden  sense 
of  what  needless  fright  he  was  causing  me.  Leaning 
abruptly  toward  me,  he  glanced  down  at  my  black-satin 
face  and  doubtless  saw  with  pity  the  intense  appeal  that 
I  tried  to  make  my  eyes  give  its  ugly  featurelessness. 
After  that  I  am  sure  that  he  was  on  the  point  of  turn- 
ing with  me  and  using  all  admissible  speed  in  quitting 
the  ball-room.  As  it  was,  we  had  even  half-turned 
when  somebody  parted  the  circle  of  people  about  us 
and  hurried  up  to  Edith  Everdell's  side. 

The  somebody  was  Fuller  Dobell. 

It  was  the  hotel-piazza  scene  intensified  ; — this  thought 
swept  through  my  mind,  pointed  with  a  kind  of  frightful 
humor.  Here  were  we  four  actors  in  that  other  scene 
brought  together  again  under  such  different  yet  such 
similar  circumstances.  Here  were  Fuller  and  Melville 
Delano  glaring  at  each  other,  just  as  before  ;  here  were 
that  woman  and  myself,  with  the  strange  change  of 
being  both  masked :  but  in  place  of  the  spectatorless 
quiet  which  then  surrounded  us — oh,  when  I  think  of 
that  neck-craning  crowd  I  turn  numb,  in  horrible 
memorial  respect  to  the  numbness  that  pervaded  me 
last  night ! 

Fuller  was  dead  white  and  had  blazing  eyes.  Whilst 
giving  his  arm  to  the  creature  he  had  come  to  defend, 
his  look  measured  Melville  with  an  arrogant  composure. 
You  saw  at  once  that  although  both  men  may  have  been 
equally  enraged,  Fuller  was  the  man  who  had  his  anger 
best  in  leash. 

And  his  voice  was  all  evenness  and  iciness.  "  This 
lady,  sir,  is  here  under  my  protection,  and  for  whatever 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  329 

impertinence  you  offer  her  you  will  be  answerable  to 
myself." 

Melville  instantly  sprang  nearer  the  speaker,  dragging 
me  after  him.  For  the  moment  I  was  too  weak  to  re- 
sist :  I  let  myself  be  dragged. 

"  This  lady,  as  you  choose  to  call  her,  is  a  disreputa- 
ble person  and  has  no  business  to  be  here  this  evening.'* 

"  What  you  say  is  a  lie,  and  you  shall  be  made  to 
retract  it,"  came  the  fleet  retort. 

"  Suppose  you  make  me  retract  this  as  well." 

So  much  Melville  Delano  said.  What  he  did  simul- 
taneously was  to  lift  his  right  hand  and  to  snap  with 
sharp  sound  across  Fuller's  cheek  the  loose  glove  he 
carried. 

I  saw  Fuller  square  himself  like  a  pugilist,  on  the  in- 
stant ;  saw  him  shoot  out  a  quick  blow  with  his  left 
arm  ;  saw  three  or  four  hands  seize  hold  of  the  arm  be- 
fore it  had  more  than  half  reached  its  place  of  aim  ;  saw 
Fuller  pushed  violently  backward  ;  and  lastly  found 
myself  pushing  wildly  forward  through  a  wall  of  people, 
whilst  gasping  out  "  Let  me  pass  ;  let  me  pass  ! " 

Presently  I  got  through,  somehow,  anyhow.  My 
weakness  had  given  place  to  a  fierce  unnatural  strength. 
I  rushed  across  the  less  crowded  part  of  the  ball-room 
at  headlong  speed.  "  O  if  I  could  only  get  myself  into 
some  sort  of  a  vehicle  and  feel  myself  being  driven 
home  !  "  was  my  silent  yearning. 

It  chanced  that  I  did  not  leave  the  ball-room  by  its 
main  entrance.  Instead  of  doing  this  I  found  myself, 
nearly  without  knowing  where  I  was,  in  one  of  the  side- 
lobbies.  I  had  hurried  along  for  quite  a  distance  and 
had  almost  reached  the  lobby's  end,  when  a  certain  dis- 
covery brought  me  to  an  abrupt  standstill. 

Mamma  and  Cornelia  Walters,  surrounded  by  several 


33O  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

gentlemen,  stood  directly  before  me,  unmasked,  of 
course,  evidently  on  their  way  to  a  carriage  and  evi- 
dently pausing  to  hold  a  little  conversation  before  they 
proceeded  further. 

How  long  would  they  pause  ?  I  dared  not  pass  them. 
Commonplace  as  my  domino  is,  mamma  had  seen  it 
before,  Cornelia  had  seen  it  before,  and  then,  too,  if 
Melville  Delano  had  recognized  me  how  probable  that 
their  keener  women's  eyes  would  not  be  less  observing 
than  his  had  been.  Anyhow,  I  had  best  draw  back  a 
little  and  so  remain  unobserved  until  they  moved  on- 
ward. They  could  not  be  waiting  for  any  special  car- 
riage ;  they  must  be  going  presently.  And  so  I  drew 
back  and  prepared  to  wait.  The  idea  of  again  entering 
the  ball-room  and  finding  some  other  means  of  egress 
was  not  at  all  a  pleasant  one.  Indeed  such  an  idea 
sent  a  shiver  through  me  whilst  I  was  dismissing  it. 

And  so  I  waited.  Where  I  stood  I  could  hear  them 
talking  with  entire  distinctness.  Clearly  above  Cor- 
nelia's rather  purposeless  chatter  sounded  mamma's 
voice. 

"  Yes,"  she  was  telling  somebody,  "  Helen  has  really 
been  dreadfully  ill.  No  one  knows  how  I  have  suffered 
during  the  miserable  interval.  Poor  child  !  she  is 
very  weak  and  nervous  yet,  though  altogether  past  her 
convalescence.  You  will  hardly  believe  me  when  I  tell 
you  something." 

Somehow  I  wasn't  an  atom  curious  to  hear  what  he 
would  hardly  believe,  whoever  he  was.  If  he  would  only 
hardly  believe  it  somewhere  else  rather  than  just  there, 
and  give  me  a  chance  to  get  away,  provided  the  getting 
were  possible  !  since  I  had  begun  to  think  that  fate 
was  objecting  insurmountably  to  any  such  procedure. 

"  Well,"  progressed  mamma,  "  I  have  not  said  a  word 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  331 

to  Helen  regarding  the  entertainment  I  give  to-mor- 
row night.  In  the  morning  I  shall  of  course  tell  the  dear 
child,  and  if  she  thinks  herself  quite  able  to  dress  and 
come  downstairs  she  shall  do  so.  But  in  her  present 
state  so  little  excites  her  that  I  have  fancied  silence  a 
far  better  plan.  All  her  intimate  friends  have  received 
instructions  from  me,  so  that  she  is  at  present  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  affair.  By  this  means,  you  see,  I  spare 
her  much  useless  worrying  as  to  whether  she  is  strong 
enough  or  not  strong  enough.  Now  don't  you  agree 
with  me  that  I  have  acted  quite  wisely  ?  " 

Mamma's  tones  grew  a  trifle  more  distant,  then. 
"  Thank  Heaven!"  I  mutely  commented,  "  they  are 
beginning  to  move  away  !  "  At  this  I  stole  a  little 
further  forward  and  reconnoitered,  so  to  speak.  They 
had  stopped  again,  only  a  few  steps  further  down  the  pas- 
sage. Evidently  mamma  had  just  met  old  Mr.  Cham- 
berlane  and  had  something  of  supreme  importance  to 
tell  him,  whilst  she  tapped  his  shoulder  with  her  fan, 
in  tenderest  chastisement.  O  it  was  too  torturing  ! 
Would  they  never  give  me  my  chance  ? 

In  my  nervous  fluttered  perplexity,  after  having  made 
this  second  discovery,  I  turned  directly  round  and  let 
my  eyes  sweep  the  opposite  end  of  the  passage.  There 
were  so  many  people  moving  hither  and  thither  that 
I  did  not  at  first  perceive  what  very  soon  became  plain  to 
me,  viz.  :  that  Fuller  was  advancing  in  my  direction  with 
a  domino  on  his  arm.  And  when  the  domino  had  gotten 
a  few  steps  nearer  I  knew  that  it  was  Edith  Everdell. 

I  drew  close  against  the  wall,  hoping  that  they  would 
not  observe  me.  I  wonder  now  that  I  did  not  dash 
past  mamma  where  she  stood  at  the  other  end  of  the 
lobby  and  so  reach  the  street-door.  Of  course  I  should 
have  done  this.  But  in  my  then  excited  state  I  must 


332  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

have  been  powerless  to  reason  at  all  beyond  the  fact  of 
Melville  Delano's  having  already  recognized  me.  I 
felt,  in  my  trembling  insecurity,  as  though  someone 
had  indeed  torn  off  at  least  half  my  masque  and  left  me 
with  the  remaining  half  as  a  mere  fractional  means  of 
disguise.  A  little  cool  reflection  must  have  changed 
all  this.  But  I  was  in  no  mood  for  cool  reflection. 
If  Melville  had  known  me,  why  would  not  mamma  and 
Cornelia  know  me  ?  If  they,  why  not  Fuller  ?  And  so 
I  stood,  huddled  up  against  the  wall,  making  the  show 
of  having  a  torn  domino  which  needed  pinning,  and 
feeling  like  a  trapped  rat. 

Would  Fuller  and  that  woman  pass  me  not  know- 
ing— or,  if  knowing,  in  peace  ?  I  grew  numb  again 
when  I  thought  of  how  her  rage  might  break  all  bounds, 
this  time,  made  even  hotter  by  previous  defeat  and 
by  the  thought  of  how  I  had  been  the  means  of  the 
recent  disturbance. 

But  after  all,  the  chances  of  that  very  same  disturb- 
ance having  scared  her  into  a  tractable  and  sober  state, 
were  decidedly  strong.  Yes,  even  if  she  recognized  the 
drooped  stooped  bundle  I  was  making  of  myself,  she 
would  probably  vent  her  fury  in  nothing  except  an 
insolent  stare. 

But  why  did  they  not  pass  ?  It  was  certainly  time 
for  them  to  have  reached  my  standing-place  and  gotten 
beyond  it,  Had  they  gone  in  some  other  direction  ? 

This  idea  had  no  sooner  occurred  to  me  than  I  had 
lifted  my  head  and  looked  searchingly  toward  the  spot 
where  I  had  last  seen  them. 

They  were  there  no  longer.  But  they  had  gone  in  no 
other  direction  than  that  which  I  believed  they  would 
take.  Here  they  stood ; — here,  not  five  yards  from  where 
I  stood  myself,  both  staring  at  me  with  curious  fixity. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


333 


"  I  told  you  it  was  the  same,"  muttered  Fuller's  com- 
panion, turning  suddenly  toward  him  as  soon  as  I  re- 
vealed myself. 

After  that  I  made  no  further  attempt  at  concealment. 
Will  it  be  unpardonably  fine  writing,  Diary,  to  say  that 
I  have  a  vague  understanding,  now,  of  what  a  stag's 
feelings  are  just  as  it  knows  that  it  can  fly  no  further  and 
feels  the  breath  of  the  murderous  crimson-tongued 
mouths  all  around  it  ?  Well,  be  this  hyperbole  or  no, 
I  simply  stood  and  looked  back  at  them,  without  any 
idea  of  escaping. 

Fuller  had  disengaged  her  arm  from  his.  In  a  voice 
too  low  for  her  to  hear,  he  seemed  making  certain  em- 
phatic statements.  He  was  very  pale  still,  with  a  cer- 
tain queer  grayish  drawn-down  look  about  his  mouth., 
which  I  had  never  seen  till  now.  His  vivid-lit  eyes  had 
lost  nothing  of  their  fire. 

"  And  I  am  to  wait  here  ?  "  she  suddenly  asked,  the 
question  seeming  to  be  an  ill-humored  objection.  And 
then  her  eyes  were  turned  from  Fuller's  face  to  fix  them- 
selves on  mine. 

"  Yes,"  he  promptly  retorted,  and  with  some  stern- 
ness. "You  will  please  wait  until  I  return.  I  shall 
possibly  be  gone  but  a  short  time." 

After  that  he  left  her  and  came  directly  toward  me. 

I  was  quite  calm.  It  was  the  calm  of  desperation,  I 
suppose.  I  never  doubted,  in  my  dazed  odd  state  of 
mind,  that  he  would  at  once  discover  who  I  was.  Per- 
haps he  had  discovered  already.  Well,  after  all,  what 
did  it  matter  ?  I  had  come  here  to  do  him  a  service. 
It  was  only  fair  that  he  should  recompense  me  by  get- 
ting me  home  as  quickly  as  he  could,  and  saving  me 
from  that  woman's  further  assaults. 

When  he  was  very  close  to  me  I  saw  that  his  face  had 


334 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


a  strangely  changed  look — storm-swept,  if  it  isn't  an 
extravagance  to  say  so.  I  do  not  mean  the  paleness, 
precisely ;  I  do  not  precisely  mean  the  brilliant  eyes. 
There  was  something  else.  Melville  Delano's  glove-tap 
had  been  too  light  to  leave  any  mark.  And  yet  it  had, 
in  its  noticeable  unnoticeable  way,  left  the  mark  as  of 
an  athlete's  fist. 

His  voice,  as  he  addressed  me,  was  gravely  courteous. 
"  Madam,  I  have  not  the  pleasure  of  knowing  if  I  know 
you.  But  as  you  seem  without  escort,  and  as  you  are 
doubtless  anxious  to  reach  some  friends,  I  beg  that  you 
will  let  me  offer  my  services." 

How  those  few  words  changed  everything  !  He  did 
not  know  me.  He  had  come  to  do  me  a  kindness. 
Yet  stinging  under  Melville's  blow,  he  was  generous 
enough  to  go  out  of  his  way  in  extending  aid  to  Mel- 
ville's late  companion.  To  think  of  my  being  proud  of 
him  then — here,  in  the  presence  of  that  creature  !  I, 
whose  right  to  feel  proud  of  any  deed  he  might  do  has 
grown  so  utter  a  mockery  ! 

My  silence  lasted  so  long  that  he  took  it,  doubtless, 
for  distrust,  and  presently  went  on,  with  a  vague  smile  : 

"Be  assured,  madam,  that  I  shall  make  no  attempt 
to  discover  who  you  are.  But  perhaps  I  am  mistaken, 
and  you  wish  no  assistance  of  this  sort.  If  so,  I  will 
not  trouble  you  any  further."  . 

Just  then  Cornelia  Walters'  laugh  floated  through  the 
lobby.  They  were  there  yet.  They  would  probably 
remain  there  five  or  ten  minutes  longer.  Fuller's  arm 
was  being  offered  me.  Should  I  take  it  and  so  get  past 
them  ?  They  would  never  dream  of  recognizing  me 
with  him.  Besides,  now  that  I  was  sure  of  Fuller's  not 
having  recognized  me,  the  old  feeling  of  confidence  was 
beginning  to  return.  It  was  with  me  as  though  I  had 


FUKfLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  335 

gotten  back  that  other  missing  half  of  my  masque.  Then 
also,  the  thought  had  just  flashed  through  my  mind : 
'  There  was  a  reason  for  Melville's  recognition.  He 
suspected  from  the  first  that  you  would  come  here,  hav- 
ing told  you  what  he  told  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  even- 
ing.' 

But  of  all  reasons  for  taking  my  husband's  arm,  this 
one  was.  the  most  powerful :  He  stood  a  protector  be- 
tween myself  and  that  woman's  personal  violence.  He 
had  ordered  her  not  to  follow  him  and  she  had  obeyed. 
He  was  keeping  her  at  a  safe  distance. 

I  slipped  my  arm  very  timidly  within  his,  (ah,  how  I 
have  leant  there,  during  other  hours,  with  all  the  bold 
glad  dependence  of  one  who  trusts  intensely  !)  and  mur- 
mured in  a  gruff  whisper  that  showed  him  not  only  what 
a  palpable  disguise  my  voice  was  using  but  what  a 
laughable  also  : 

"  I  only  want  a  carriage.  Thanks,  if  you  will  please 
get  me  one." 

We  reached  the  end  of  the  lobby  just  as  mamma, 
Cornelia  and  their  little  retinue  of  gentlemen  had  begun 
to  move  away.  None  of  the  party  saw  us,  for  the  plain 
reason  that  they  turned  their  backs  upon  us  at  precisely 
the  opportune  time.  Then,  however,  Fuller  undoubt- 
edly saw,  and  took  a  wholly  different  course  after  we 
quitted  the  lobby,  leaving  the  opera-house  by  a  door  as 
distant  as  possible  from  the  one  which  they  took. 

He  obtained  a  carriage  for  me  with  entire  ease ;  there 
were  so  few  people  leaving  at  that  comparatively  early 
hour. 

As  he  opened  the  carriage-door  he  again  spoke.  "  I 
suppose  you  would  prefer  giving  the  coachman  your  own 
order." 

"Yes,"  I  returned. 


336  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"Just  as  you  please."  After  that  he  spoke  some 
words  to  the  coachman  which  I  did  not  exactly  catch. 
Then  he  took  some  money  from  his  pocket,  whilst  a  few 
more  words  passed  between  them.  Presently  he  turned 
toward  me  and  seemed  surprised  that  I  was  still  stand- 
ing by  the  carriage-door. 

"  Will  you  get  in,  please?"  he  proposed,  very  po- 
litely. 

I  did  not  stir.  A  new  idea  had  entered  my  brain  dur- 
ing the  past  moment  or  so.  Still  using  my  disguised 
voice,  I  abruptly  burst  forth  with  these  words — for  ah, 
how  much  bolder  I  had  grown  now  that  I  was  sure 
of  being  well  freed  from  that  creature's  exposing 
clutches : 

"  Do  you  choose  to  give  me  your  word  of  honor, 
Fuller  Dobell,  on  the  subject  of  whether  you  know  or 
suspect  who  I  am  ?  " 

"  I  neither  know  nor  suspect,"  he  replied,  promptly, 
"  and  will  give  you  my  word  of  honor  to  that  effect,  if 
you  so  desire." 

"  But  why  are  you  behaving,  then,  with  this  kind- 
ness ?  " 

At  first  he  looked  rather  haughtily  intolerant  of  my 
question.  Then  he  fixed  those  oddly  bright  eyes^  upon 
mine  and  answered  in  cold  steady  tones  : 

"  You  were  with  Mr.  Delano,  I  believe,  at  the  time 
of  that  little  trouble  in  the  ball-room.  I  suppose  you 
know  that  he  has  been  arrested,  or,  if  not  that,  forced 
to  leave  the  house.  I  saw  you  without  a  protector,  and 
chose  to  offer  my  services." 

"  It  was  strangely  generous — almost  chivalrous  of 
you,"  I  nearly  forgot  my  disguised  voice  whilst  I  re- 
sponded. "  Not  one  gentleman  in  fifty  would  have 
acted  so  !  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


337 


After  this  I  turned  and  entered  the  carriage.  He 
closed  the  door,  raised  his  hat,  and  I  was  driven  off. 

We  had  not  more  than  passed  out  of  Irving  Place 
into  Fourteenth  Street  when  I  managed  to  get  the 
front-window  of  the  carriage  unclosed  with  all  available 
speed  and  to  tell  the  driver  my  address.  "  And  I  will 
give  you  a  dollar  more  than  that  gentleman  gave  you," 
I  added,  "  if  you  will  make  your  horses  go  a£  fast  as 
they  can." 

The  result  of  this  pecuniary  goad  to  the  driver's  en- 
ergy was  my  arrival  home  quite  a  little  time  in  advance 
of  mamma.  I  was  relieved  to  have  Blanche  open  the 
door  for  me  and  not  Henry.  Once  upstairs  in  my 
room  so  intense  a  feeling  of  fatigue  overcame  me  that 
I  simply  recollect  being  altogether  indebted  to  Blanche 
in  the  matter  of  getting  myself  fit  for  bed,  and  then 
sleeping  with  a  dead  sort  of  soundness  till  I  woke  up 
and  found  the  brightest  daylight  all  about  me. 

I  have  not  seen  either  mamma  or  Fuller  yet.  I  sup- 
pose mamma  will  appear  presently,  to  give  the  "dear 
child"  tidings  of  to-night's  ball. 

Now  that  I  have  written  it  all  out,  Diary,  I  am  go- 
ing to  read  it  all  over  and  think  about  it.  But  I  have 
written  far  too  much.  It  is  stupid  to  tax  my  strength 
in  this  needless  way. 

Fuller's  face  haunts  me,  as  I  left  it  last  night.  If  any- 
thing dreadful  should  happen  between  him  and  Melville 
Delano  I  shall  have  been  the  cause.  I  do  so  hate  to 
think  of  this  !  But  pshaw  !  the  days  are  past  when 
men  fight  duels  together.  And  yet  they  are  both  so 
high-spirited,  have  both  hated  each  other  so  long. 
Who  knows  what  may  happen  ? 
15 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

|PRIL  3. — I  had  just  locked  you  up  yesterday, 
Diary,  when  mamma  made  her  appearance. 
This  had  been  her  second  attempt  to  see  me 
that  morning,  I  was  informed.  My  late  rising  had  as- 
tonished her  not  a  little.  She  trusted  I  was  feeling 
quite  well  ?  Did  my  paleness  mean  no  ?  for  I  hadn't  a 
vestige  of  color  and  those  rings  had  gotten  about  my 
eyes  again. 

"  There's  no  denying  that  I  don't  feel  exactly  robust," 
I  smiled. 

"That  is  too  bad,"  deplored  mamma,  "because  of 
what  I  have  come  to  tell  you,  Helen."  And  then  she 
talked  about  her  party  that  evening  with  much  the  same 
royally  considerate  manner  (though  more  than  a  trifle 
toned  down  in  one  or  two  affectionate  particulars) 
which  I  had  heard  her  use  at  the  opera-ball,  a  few  hours 
ago. 

"  I  may  feel  well  enough  to  appear  below  stairs,"  I 
presently  stated;  "but  there  is  no  telling,  mamma." 
For  it  had  occurred  to  me,  just  here,  that  I  might  have 
cause  to  visit  the  drawing-room  for  at  least  a  little  while 
during  the  evening,  and  that  it  was  therefore  best  to  an- 
nounce no  exact  resolution  either  way.  "  By  the  bye, 
was  it  nice  at  the  ball  last  night  ?  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  339 

"  Charming,"  declared  mamma,  "  though  not  at  all 
select.  One  leans  upon  a  broken  reed  when  one  expects 
that  sort  of  thing  at  entertainments  where  people  pay 
and  go.  Much  to  my  satisfaction  Cornelia  did  not  wan- 
der away  from  me  among  the  masquers.  We  left  com- 
paratively early.  There  were  not  so  very  many  familiar 
faces  among  the  unmasked  ladies ;  but  among  the 
men  it  was  not  at  all  easy  to  pick  out  the  strangers." 

All  the  while  she  was  speaking  I  watched  her  face 
narrowly  for  some  dim  sign  that  she  had  learned  about 
the  quarrel  and  was  keeping  her  knowledge  hidden. 
But  face  was  never  more  baffling  in  its  deception,  pro- 
vided she  really  knew.  No  ;  I  must  conclude  that  she 
had  as  yet  learned  nothing. 

She  left  the  room  not  long  afterward,  and  nearly  as 
soon  as  she  was  gone  I  felt  so  intense  a  drowsiness  be- 
gin its  oppressing  work,  that  I  at  length  decided  to 
spare  my  eyelids  any  further  waste  of  time  as  regarded 
their  blinking  endeavors  to  keep  open.  I  slept  the 
better  part  of  the  afternoon.  It  wanted  but  a  little  of 
dinner-time  when  I  woke  up,  literally  gorged  with 
sleep  and  feeling  refreshed  therefor,  the  last  vestige  of 
that  tired  ache  gone  out  of  my  bones  and  my  head 
quite  normally  clear  again. 

Passing  out  into  the  hall,  I  noticed  that  the  door  of 
Fuller's  bed-room  was  open.  I  looked  in  as  I  went  by, 
seeing  that  it  had  no  occupant.  Then  I  somehow  en- 
tered, for  what  reason  I  could  not  precisely  tell. 

Beyond  lay  Fuller's  little  sitting- room,  separated  from 
that  which  I  now  occupied  by  a  heavy  dark-blue  cur- 
tain drawn  across  its  door-way.  There  was  a  wide 
division  in  this  curtain,  just  at  present,  through  which, 
whilst  standing  in  the  centre  of  the  bed-room,  I  could 
clearly  see  the  room  beyond.  After  making  a  certain 


340 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


discovery  I  was  on  the  point  of  departing  with  all  haste  : 
but  somehow  I  remained  and  watched,  filled  with  a  kind 
of  fearful  curiosity. 

There  sat  Fuller  (knowing,  of  course,  nothing  of  my 
presence  here)  before  the  large  writing-table  in  the 
room's  centre.  I  only  saw  his  face  in  profile,  but  this 
view  showed  me  well  how  sternly  troubled  it  looked. 
His  left  hand  propped  his  drooped  head ;  his  right 
hand  held  a  pen  ;  before  him  lay  some  writing-paper. 
I  stepped  forth  from  the  bed-room,  presently,  with  a 
sensation  of  nervous  gnawing  worriment. 

At  dinner  his  manner  struck  me  as  wholly  unnatural. 
Now  there  was  an  evident  effort  not  to  be  gloomy  ;  now 
an  equally  evident  one  not  to  be  gay.  Twice  or  three 
times  I  caught  him  staring  hard  at  nothing,  like  one 
whom  some  thought  of  engrossing  moment  possesses 
and  will  not  relinquish.  The  conversation  principally 
concerned  the  coming  party. 

"  Are  you  decided  about  appearing  or  not  appearing, 
Helen  ?  "  mamma  asked  of  me. 

"  Not  yet,"  I  hesitated,  crumbling  my  bread  with 
nervous  fingers.  "  Anyhow,  don't  expect  me,  mamma, 
or  tell  any  one  that  you  expect  me.  Please  look  upon 
me  as  an  accident  that  may  or  may  not  happen." 
After  a  little  silence,  I  added:  "  It  will  be  about  the 
last  thing  of  the  season,  I  suppose." 

"No,"  stated  mamma.  "  There  will  be  the  Barthol- 
omews' to-morrow  night — Bessy  Bartholomew's  long- 
delayed  Delmonico  ball.  The  invitations  have  been 
out  over  a  fortnight.  I  thought  you  had  seen  yours. 
I  accepted  for  you,  the  other  day,  though  not  imagining 
that  you  would  go.  But  of  course,  Fuller,  you  don't 
intend  missing  it." 

This   remark,  sent  suddenly  Fullerward,   made  him 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  34! 

start,  somehow.  And  he  changed  color  a  trifle,  be- 
sides. "Miss  it?"  he  repeated,  more  rapidly,  more 
off-hand  in  style  than  is  at  all  usual  with  him.  "  I  hope 
I  shan't — I  don't  know — perhaps  something  may  occur 
— gracious  !  who  can  tell  in  a  place  like  New  York  ?  " 

"  One  may  die." 

For  a  second  or  two  I  kept  my  eyes  on  the  table- 
cloth after  uttering  this  lively  sentiment.  Then  I  lifted 
them,  and  shot  a  fleet  stolen  glance  at  Fuller. 

He  looked  certainly  a  shade  or  so  paler.  Or  was  I 
a  nervous  simpleton,  bothered  with  stupid  fears,  incor- 
rigibly fanciful  ?  Well,  it  might  be  ;  or  it  might  not 
be. 

By  ten  o'clock  that  evening  I  had  gotten  through 
several  chapters  of  a  rather  entertaining  novel,  and  had 
let  myself  gently  drift  into  the  resolution  of  not  going 
downstairs.  But  somehow,  just  at  that  time,  the  novel 
became  dull  and  savorless  to  me  ;  I  got  thinking  of  last 
night  and  living  all  its  terrors  over  again.  I  saw  the 
pressing  crowd  once  more  ;  felt  once  more  that  dread- 
ful ground-giving-way-beneath-my-feet  sensation  when 
Melville  dragged  me  toward  Fuller  in  his  reckless  rage ; 
heard  once  more  the  two  men's  mutual  insolence  and  at 
last  the  sharp  snap  of  that  assaulting  glove. 

And  now  what  was  to  be  the  result  ?  If  this  is  an 
age  when  duelling  has  been  flung  in  that  rubbish-heap 
where  cluster  so  many  "  cold  old  crimes  "  of  the  past,  and 
if  wounded  honor  is  taught  by  law  to  appease  itself 
through  some  less  murderous  method  than  that  of  bul- 
let or  blade  ; — if  Fuller  Dobell  would  call  ridicule  upon 
himself  were  he  to  challenge  Melville  Delano,  and  run 
the  imminent  risk  of  arrest  and  imprisonment  were  any 
such  meeting  to  occur,  then  must  I  believe  that  last 
night's  affair  would  be  wholly  devoid  of  all  ireful  conse- 


342  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

quence  ?  It  was  hard,  I  found,  to  believe  this  ;  and 
the  more  I  tried  to  believe  it  the  more  I  found  myself 
haunted  with  nervous  imaginings. 

No  ;  there  would  be  some  result,  surely.  If  to-day 
had  not  brought  it  forth  (and  I  felt  nearly  convinced 
that  to-day  had  not)  then  to-morrow  would  most  prob- 
ably do  so.  There  had  been  a  blow  given,  and  Fuller 
was  just  the  man  to  feel  himself  on  thorns  until  there 
had  been  a  blow  returned. 

If  I  could  only  find  out  precisely  how  the  case  now 
stood  between  the  two  men  ! 

Presently  there  began  a  rolling  of  carriage  after  car- 
riage in  front  of  our  door,  and  sounds  of  feet  hurrying 
upstairs,  and  occasional  sharp  bell-peals,  and  at  last  the 
long  dreamy  murmurous  music  of  one  of  Lander's 
waltzes. 

By  the  time  that  the  music  commenced  I  had  made 
up  my  mind  to  dress  and  go  downstairs.  Blanche  did 
not  appear  until  I  had  rung  several  times  for  her,  and 
then  darted  into  the  room,  all  volubility  and  smart  ap- 
parel. Madame  must  excuse  ;  there  was  such  confusion 
downstairs. 

She  helped  me  with  my  toilette  as  though  beatified 
that  I  should  have  made  so  noble  a  resolution,  and 
mingled  with  her  satisfaction  such  nimbleness  of  speed 
that  I  was  ready  much  sooner  than  I  had  thought  to  be. 

Well,  whether  the  welcomes  were  sincere  or  no  ; 
whether  or  no  three-quarters  of  them  were  fustian  and 
buncombe ;  whether  or  no  the  kisses  of  the  women  were 
Judas  kisses  and  the  warm  hand-shakings  of  the  men 
were  politic  hypocrisies,  and  the  congratulations  in  every- 
body's eyes  and  smiles  and  voices  were  three-quarters 
of  them  hollow  delusion  ; — whether  or  no  all  this  were 
thus,  I  can't  say  and  I  don't  much  care.  But  notwith- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  343 

standing,  it  was  pleasant  to  be  treated  as  though  one 
really  were  of  some  importance  in  the  community,  and 
as  though  the  fact  of  how  death  had  been  recently 
threatening  one  with  a  permanent  removal  from  it 
ranked  slightly  above  the  every-day  commonplaces  of 
incident. 

I  had  not  been  in  the  room  an  hour  before  I  began  to 
observe  one  thing  :  nobody  was  willing  to  speak  at  any 
length  with  me  on  the  subject  of  last  night's  ball.  It 
would  be  "  yes  ; "  it  would  be  "  no  ;  "  and  then,  before 
I  could  well  realize  the  change,  it  would  be  some  quite 
earnest  remark  about  something  wholly  different.  "Of 
course  I  made  my  own  deductions,  presently.  Stones 
of  Fuller's  and  Melville's  encounter  had  flown  on  the 
wings  of  scandal  here,  there,  everywhere.  But  had  I 
no  means  of  finding  out  from  anybody  how  matters 
stood  at  present  ?  No  ;  I  could  not  bring  myself  to 
question  Ludlow  Inmann  or  Aleck  Sheffield  or  Willie 
Gregory  or  any  of  that  Terpsichorean  band.  The  weight 
of  such  a  secret  as  that  I  had  applied  to  him  for  such 
information  would  be  simply  a  merciless  imposition  on 
my  part,  were  I  to  thrill  the  gossip-loving  soul  of  any 
one  of  these  young  gentlemen  by  a  confidence  so  enor- 
mous. And  then  the  humiliation  !  No,  no  ;  better  re- 
main in  ignorance  than  purchase  tidings  at  this  price ! 

I  did  not  dance  the  cotillon.  Whilst  it  was  going  on 
and  whilst  I  was  seated  in  the  back  drawing-room,  com- 
passed with  some  half-dozen  partnerless  men,  John  Dris- 
coll,  also  a  non-dancer  for  the  nonce,  came  struggling 
toward  me  through  a  barrier  of  occupied  cotillon-chairs. 
I  had  seen  him  before,  during  the  evening,  but  merely 
for  a  moment  or  two.  When  I  saw  him  now,  the  deter- 
mination to  forget  past  pique  and  ask  him  a  few  ques- 
tions grew  suddenly  strong  within  me. 


344  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

John  Driscoll  had  been  standing  before  me  for  quite  a 
little  while  in  chairless  devotion,  when  some  penetrat- 
ing female  admirer  of  Winny  Westerveldt's  beckoned  to 
him  from  the  distant  cotillon,  and  that  gentleman's 
chair,  just  at  my  side,  was  temporarily  vacated. 

I  motioned  for  John  Driscoll  to  come  and  seat  himself 
there  ;  which  he  did.  Knowing  that  Winny  Westerveldt 
would  presently  return,  and  that  the  occasion  must  there- 
fore be  seized  with  marked  promptness,  I  at  once  began. 

"  Do  you  know  I  am  aware  of  what  occurred  at  the 
ball,  last  night,  between  Fuller  and  Melville  Delano  ?  " 

He  looked  amazed,  then  quickly  looked  all  composure 
again.  "  Yes  ?  I  am  sorry  to  hear  it — very  sorry." 

"But  I  don't  know  if  anything  has  occurred  since 
then — or  if  anything  is  going  to  occur.  I  wish  that  you 
would  tell  me  whatever  you  know."  I  made  my  whis- 
per supplicatory  as  possible,  without  letting  it  be  baby- 
ish. "  Will  you  not,  please  ?  "  I  made  my  "  please  " 
equal  a  whole  sentence  of  pathos.  And  whilst  speaking 
I  watched  the  man's  face  with  a  lynxlike  narrowness 
that  I  am  certain,  however,  he  did  not  perceive. 

Although  for  that  matter,  I  pretend  to  no  certainty 
in  anything  that  concerns  John  Driscoll.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  some  species  of  very  difficult  diplomacy  lost 
a  brilliant  star  when  it  failed  to  secure  his  membership. 
Whilst  he  answered  me  I  was  simply  sure  of  one  thing  : 
that  his  face  and  voice  and  manner  were  not  going  to 
tell  me  an  iota  more  than  he  chose  to  have  them  tell, 
provided  he  were  really  on  his  guard  and  had  good  rea- 
sons for  being  so. 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Dobell,"  (with  a  vague  shoulder- 
shrug  and  a  little  waving  gesture  from  each  hand)  "  in 
point  of  ignorance  you  and  I  are  about  quits  here,  I 
fancy.  But  I  confess  you  more  than  half  puzzle  me 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  345 

when  you  speak  of  what  is  going  to  occur.  Have  we 
any  reason  not  to  think  the  matter  ended  there  ?  " 

"  I  hope  it  did,"  I  murmured.  "  Do  you  really  think 
it  could?  A  man's  opinion  about  these  affairs  is  so 
much  better  than  a  woman's." 

He  gave  a  light  slight  laugh.  "  My  opinion  is  not 
worth  much  in  the  present  affair,  I  assure  you.  I  had 
the  misfortune  to  be  upstairs,  last  night,  when  it  oc- 
curred ;  and  there  is  always  such  a  babel  of  conflicting 
accounts,  don't  you  know  ?  " 

"But  understanding  Fuller  as  well  as  you  do,"  I 
pressed,  in  excited  whisper,  "how  is  it  your  belief  that 
he  will  act,  provided  he  received  that  insult  and  really 
hadn't  time  to  retaliate  before  the  two  were  parted  ?  " 

Again  the  brief  fraction  of  a  laugh.  "  How  will  he 
act  ?  You  want  me  to  put  myself  in  his  place  ?  " 

I  was  getting  impatient.  Distantly  I  saw  Winny 
Westerveldt  reinstate  his  admirer  in  her  chair  and  glide 
forward  to  claim  his  own. 

"  Yes,  yes,"  I  returned,  impatiently. 

Did  he  see  Winny  Westerveldt  also  ?  Was  he  trying 
to  gain  time  ?  He  was  John  Driscoll ;  I  can't  say. 

"  But  I  couldn't  put  myself  in  his  place,"  he  loitered, 
with  rather  a  profound  look. 

"  And  why  not,  pray  ?  " 

"  Because — because,"  he  continued  to  loiter,  "  Fuller 
is  Fuller,  you  know,  and  I  am — myself." 

And  then,  whilst  I  gave  an  ill-humored  little  cry  and 
clouded  my  brows,  John  Driscoll  rose  up  because 
Winny  Westerveldt  was  close  upon  us.  And  shortly 
afterward  he  left  me. 

I  sat  there  among  my  partnerless  adherents  until  the 
cotillon  was  ended  and  the  departures  were  beginning. 
It  was  wrong  for  me  to  keep  such  late  hours,  but  then 
15* 


346  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  had  fed  myself  upon  sleep  to  such  repletion  during 
the  afternoon  that  the  injury  could  not  have  been  im- 
portant. I  think  I  should  have  gone  upstairs  some 
time  before  I  did  if  it  had  not  been  that  I  felt  a  sort 
of  fascination  in  watching  Fuller  from  a  distance  whilst 
he  danced  with  Belle  Dillinger.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
his  face  had  never  wholly  lost  its  strange  look  of  last 
night.  He  appeared  in  a  perpetual  mental  state  (to 
judge  from  his  eyes)  of  industrious  wool-gathering.  I 
could  hate  sworn,  after  watching  him  for  quite  a  little 
space,  that  he  was  thinking  of  something  else  all  the 
time  he  danced,  talked  and  smiled. 

"  Mrs.  Tommy  Meredith  has  been  searching  for 
you,  my  dear,"  mamma  murmured  to  me  as  we  met 
just  after  the  cotillon.  "  She  is  so  anxious  to  congratu- 
late you  on  getting  well.  Don't  you  see  her  ?  She  has 
just  finished  a  turn  with  Fuller." 

As  mamma  had  left  a  great  bevy  of  dowagers  for  the 
purpose  of  communicating  to  me  this  vital  intelligence, 
I  felt  compelled  to  leave  my  seat  and  betake  myself 
Mrs.  Tommy  Meredithward. 

The  cotillon  was  just  disbanded,  and  those  who  had 
composed  it  were,  "  all  that  was  left  of  them,"  prancing 
and  stumbling  and  dragging  each  other,  as  though  try- 
ing to  become  convinced  that  they  had  not  already  tired 
themselves  nearly  to  death,  and  didn't  want  to  stop, 
and  were  not  pushed  about  by  that  singular  inertia 
which  makes  some  of  us  continue  dancing  long  after  our 
wearied  bodies  have  cried  out,  "  Hold,  enough." 

I  had  talked  to  Mrs.  Tommy  Meredith  until  Charley 
Bertram  had  seized  and  borne  her  away,  disregarding 
her  simple  statement  that  she  should  ' '  drop  dead  if  she 
danced  another  step  ;  "  and  I  had  found  myself  standing 
alone  in  a  retired  corner,  after  that,  watching  the  fagged- 


PURPLE  AND   FINE  LINEN. 


347 


out  locomotion  of  the  dancers,  when  suddenly  I  became 
aware  that  the  two  gentlemen,  stationed  almost  in  front 
of  me,  and  evidently  knowing  nothing  of  my  presence 
so  near  them,  were  Fuller  and  John  Driscoll. 

John  Driscoll  was  speaking,  and  rather  emphatically. 
"  You  have  the  support  of  my  opinion,  if  you  esteem  it 
of  any  worth.  Under  the  circumstances,  I  consider 
you  justified  in  taking  the  course  you  have  taken.  But 
then,  you  know,  my  own  ideas  on  these  matters  have 
always  been  what  people  would  call  peculiar." 

"  I  remember,"  replied  Fuller.  "  And  that  was  my 
principal  reason  for  calling  upon  you  as  I  did.  You 
will  stop  for  me  at  what  time  ?  " 

.  "  I  think  we  had  better  make  it  five  o'clock  ;  that  will 
just  about  harmonize  with  the  other  arrangements." 

Willie  Gregory  discovered  me,  just  here,  and  hurried 
up  to  beg  me  for  a  dance:  "  Only  one,  please,  Mrs. 
Dobell.  It  could  never  hurt  you." 

Fuller  and  John  Driscoll  moved  away  from  me  almost 
immediately  afterward.  My  eyes  followed  them  whilst 
I  was  framing  a  sentence  of  refusal  for  Willie  Gregory. 
I  am  afraid  he  observed  something  strangely  odd  in  my 
behavior ;  for  to  save  my  life  I  could  not  give  him  my 
attention  during  the  next  few  moments. 

In  a  very  little  while  the  rooms  had  thinned  out  im- 
mensely. "I  am  going  upstairs,"  I  presently  told 
mamma.  "  If  anybody  asks  for  me,  say  that  I  was  not 
very  well  and  had  to  go." 

Once  in  my  own  room,  I  burst  into  a  weak  flood  of 
tears.  But  these  lasted  only  a  brief  while.  Then  I 
sat  down  composedly  and  tried  the  plan  of  reasoning 
with  myself  to  the  effect  that  I  had  no  real  evidence  of 
anything  dreadful  having  been  planned. 

Nor  indeed  had  I.     It  might  have  been  that  Fuller 


348  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

and  John  Driscoll  were  merely  discussing  some  matter 
as  much  the  antipodes  of  what  I  had  suspected  au  the 
buying  of  a  horse  or  the  going  out  for  a  drive  together. 
Even  the  hour  mentioned — five  o'clock — might  much 
more  probably  mean  five  in  the  afternoon  than  five  in 
the  morning. 

And  then  I  laughed — actually  laughed  aloud  to  my- 
self, calling  myself  a  silly  terrorist.  Five  in  the  morn- 
ing !  Would  I  have  ever  dreamed  about  such  an  ab- 
surd hour  being  meant  but  for  the  novels  I  had  read 
with  duels  in  them — the  overdoses  I  had  taken  of  Dumas 
and  Bulwer  and  Heaven  knows  who  else,  at  various 
period^  of  my  girlhood  ? 

Not  quite  pacified,  but  trying  to  make  myself  believe 
that  I  was,  I  rose  and  rang  for  Blanche,  and  was  soon 
in  bed.  In  bed,  but  not  asleep,  as  the  moments  lapsed 
along.  For  I  could  not  sleep. 

I  had  been  in  bed  perhaps  two  hours,  and  the  house 
was  now  very  still,  when  I  became  convinced  that 
Fuller,  whom  I  had  heard  entering  his  room  a  long 
while  ago,  was  yet  awake  and  had  crossed  its  floor  once 
or  twice  during  the  past  half-hour  or  so. 

The  desire  to  satisfy  myself  on  this  point  became 
simply  intense  ;  and  as  for  sleep,  that  seemed  something 
quite  unattainable  :  I  could  only  tpss  about  feverishly, 
and  hear  vague  voices  as  of  people  talking  together 
on  all  strange  subjects,  and  feel  my  pillow  to  be  now  a 
mountain  of  height,  now  a  valley  of  hollowness. 

At  length  I  rose  up  from  bed,  turned  the  gas  from  a 
dim  star  to  comparative  brightness,  unlocked  my 
door  and  stole  forth  into  the  outside  hall.  Drawing 
near  Fuller's  door,  I  was  surprised  to  find  it  wide  open 
arid  his  bed-room  lighted  only  with  a  faint  reflected 
light  from  the  adjoining  room. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


349 


Just  as  I  had  done  during  the  afternoon  I  did  now, 
stealing  into  the  bed-room  and  looking  beyond  between 
the  still-parted  folds  of  the  heavy  blue  curtain.  A  bril- 
liant light  filled  the  little  sitting-room.  Fuller  was 
seated  at  the  writing-table,  dressed  just  as  he  had  been 
when  I  last  saw  him. 

He  was  writing  rapidly,  like  one  who  has  much  to 
write  and  only  a  certain  time  to  do  it  in.  His  head  was 
so  bent  tableward  that  his  face  was  nearly  hidden  from 
me  whilst  he  wrote,  wrote. 

I  felt  at  first  like  uttering  a  sharp  and  bitter  cry  :  for 
it  was  a  certainty  to  me,  then,  that  my  most  horrible 
fears  had,  after  all,  been  well  grounded. 

I  don't  know  how  long  I  stood,  watching  him,  whilst 
he  wrote,  wrote.  At  length  I  stole  back  to  my  own 
room  and  looked  at  my  watch.  It  wanted  ten  minutes 
of  four  o'clock.  Was  John  Driscoll  coming  at  five  ? 
I  did  not  at  all  doubt  it,  now  ! 

Just  then  I  heard  Fuller's  bed-room  door  closed  with 
considerable  sound.  He  had  probably  finished  his 
writing  and  was  going  to  get  a  little  sleep  before — 

0  God  !  I   don't  think  I  have  ever  really  known  till 
then  how  much  I  have  loved  him  all  along  ! 

What  should  I  do  ?  Should  I  go  downstairs  and 
wake  up  mamma  and  tell  her  ?  How  worse  than  use- 
less as  a  preventive  would  be  such  a  step  !  How  worse 
than  useless  as  preventives  would  be  all  steps  of  which 
I  might  think  ! 

1  turned  my  gas  up  higher  and  made  a  sort  of  wild 
toilette.     Bed   was  a   thing   abominable  just  then.     I 
must  always  remember  that  wretched  suspenseful  hour 
until  five  o'clock.     Sometimes  I  would  walk  the  floor, 
with  arms  tight-folded  and  head  bent  grounclward  and 
gathered   brows.      And    sometimes   I    would   sit   dead 


350 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


still,  suddenly  springing  up  and  wanting  to  shriek  out 
my  terror.  And  once  I  flung  myself  down  beside  the 
bed  and  prayed,  prayed,  prayed.  And  once  I  caught 
myself  reviling  myself  bitterly  for  loving  him,  for  even 
caring  what  might  become  of  him ;  and  this  mood  ended 
in  miserable  tears. 

At  last  it  wanted  only  a  few  moments  of  five  o'clock. 
I  had  heard  nothing  stir,  as  yet,  in  Fuller's  room. 
What  if,  even  yet,  it  should  turn  out  that  I  had  been  mis- 
taken ?  The  thought  set  my  heart  beating  delightedly.  ] 
drew  near  the  door  leading  from  my  own  room  into  Ful- 
ler's. This  was  shut,  and  there  was  a  little  passage  be- 
tween this  and  a  second  door.  I  dared  not  enter  the  pas- 
sage for  fear  of  the  noise  being  heard  by  him  at  such  an 
hour,  and  the  suspicion  of  my  wakefulness  and  watch- 
fulness being  roused  in  him.  Listening,  I  heard  no 
sound — not  the  ghost  of  one.  And  yet  it  was  nearly 
five  o'clock.  O  joy  !  perhaps  after  all  I  had  been 
wrong  !  Or  even  if  something  were  to  happen,  five  in 
the  afternoon  was  the  time  appointed  ;  and  there  were 
yet  hours,  hours  between  now  and  then. 

But  whilst  listening,  suddenly  I  heard  an  unmistakable 
sound  as  of  some  one  moving  about  the  room.  Ah, 
how  awfully  my  heart  fell,  at  this  !  Fuller  had  risen  to 
keep  his  appointment.  It  must  be  true  ! 

I  got  trembling  with  such  violence  that  I  was  forced 
to  sit  down.  My  last  doubt  had  been  swept  away,  I 
told  myself.  And  yet  in  saying  so  I  deceived  myself. 
There  was  still  another  proof  wanted  ; — the  proof  of 
John  Driscoll's  coming. 

The  watch  said  five  o'clock.  I  went  toward  the  win- 
dow and  looked  out  into  the  dark  dawnless  avenue  be- 
neath. No  sign  of  a  carriage.  Every  moment  told, 
now.  Every  moment  took  away  the  probability  of  my 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


351 


having  rightly  judged  from  what  words  they  two  had 
exchanged  together.  John  Driscoll  is  usually  the  soul 
of  punctuality  about  keeping  appointments  ;  I  know 
him  well  enough  to  know  that. 

Presently  I  stood  with  the  watch  in  my  hand,  staring 
at  it,  every  sense  on  the  alert,  my  hope  and  courage 
rising  with  each  second  that  lapsed  away  and  did  not 
bring  John  Driscoll. 

A  minute  past  five :  a  minute  and  a  half:  two  min- 
utes :  three  minutes  :  three  minutes  and  a  half:  (Oh,  was 
it  really  true,  after  all,  that  I  had  been  only  a  foolish 
alarmist !)  four  minutes*:  four  minutes  and  a — 

I  lifted  my  head  with  a  sudden  jerk,  then.  I  had 
heard  something.  And  the  something  was  a  faraway 
sound  of  wheels  rumbling  along  the  still  pavement. 

Nearer,  nearer.  They  were  carriage-wheels.  Nearer, 
nearer.  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  my  face  in  the  opposite 
cheval-glass  and  afterward  remembered  its  pallor  and  its 
wildness,  though  neither  impressed  me  then.  Nearer, 
nearer.  O  my  God  !  was  it  stbpping  ?  I  reeled  to  the 
window.  It  had  stopped  by  the  time  I  got  there.  A 
man  was  getting  out. 

I  absolutely  remember  nothing  more  till  I  found  my- 
self in  the  outside  hall  near  Fuller's  bed-room  door. 
That  was  still  closed.  He  had  not  come  forth  yet,  evi- 
dently. Nor  as  yet  had  there  been  any  ring  at  the  bell 
— at  least  none  that  I  had  heard.  But  John  Driscoll 
would  not  dare  to  ring  the  bell,  coming  on  an  errand  like 
this.  How,  then,  would  he  make  known  his  presence 
to  Fuller,  whose  room  was  in  the  rear  portion  of  the 
house  and  who  therefore  could  not  be  watching  for 
him  ? 

I  had  just  asked  myself  this  question  when  downstairs 
amid  the  intense  stillness  a  slight  sound  like  an  opening 


352  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

door  came  vaguely  to  my  ears.  I  leaned  over  the 
banisters,  listening  with  most  eager  attention. 

It  was  the  front  door,  being  softly  opened  and  softly 
closed.  Then  came  the  sound  of  someone  softly  ascend- 
ing. I  understood  it  all,  after  that.  Fuller  had  given 
John  Driscoll  a  latch-key  and  had  probably  left  a  light 
burning  for  him  in  the  lower  hall ;  and  John  Driscoll 
was  coming  upstairs. 

The  hall  in  which  I  stood  was  dimly  lighted,  just  as  it 
is  usually  kept  throughout  the  night.  I  glided  back 
into  my  own  room  and  made  my  door  very  faintly  ajar,  so 
that  I  could  see  through  the  crevice  thus  formed,  who- 
ever might  appear.  The  steps  loudened  by  slow  de- 
grees, as  they  came  higher,  higher,  though  one  could 
tell  that  the  person  making  them  tried  his  best  to  deal 
with  a  slight  insubordinate  boot-creak.  Presently  John 
Driscoll  was  making  a  vague  summons  at  Fuller's  door. 

Almost  instantly  the  door  was  opened.  "  My  dear 
fellow,"  I  heard  Fuller  whisper,  "  how  odd  that  I  didn't 
hear  you  come  upstairs.  I  have  been  quite  ready  for 
some  few  moments."  Then  they  both  entered  the 
room. 

Very  soon  afterwards  they  emerged  again  into  the 
hall.  I  suppose  I  did  wrongly,  recklessly,  stupidly,  in 
acting  as  I  acted.  But  a  kind  of  madness  was  upon 
me.  I  could  not  stand  there  and  tamely  see  them  go. 
I  must  make  some  effort  to  stop  them,  even  if  I  knew 
before  it  was  made  that  the  effort  would  be  worse  than 
futile. 

And  so  I  had  rushed  out  just  as  Fuller  was  on  the 
4>oint  of  descending,  whilst  John  Driscoll  followed 
close  behind.  Both  of  them  started  terribly  on  seeing 
me. 

I  cannot  recall  the  exact  words  I  used.       They  were 


PURPLE  AND  FINE   LINEN.  353 

somewhat  after  this  sort,  my  voice  having  a  plaintive 
passionate  break  in  it  whilst  I  uttered  them  : 

"  Oh,  Fuller,  I  know  that  this  means  something  hor- 
rible. I  am  sure  that  I  understand  it.  Think  of  what 
you  are  doing  !  Oh,  John  Driscoll,  make  him  hear  rea- 
son !  Tell  him  to  remember — " 

And  then  John  Driscoll  had  gotten  hold  of  both  my 
hands  in  both  of  his  and  was  drawing  me  toward  the 
room  from  whence  I  had  rushed,  with  a  force  and  firm- 
ness that  I  was  just  nervous,  unstrung,  terrified  enough 
not  entirely  to  resist. 

We  were  much  nearer  the  door  of  my  room,  and  his 
body  altogether  shut  out  Fuller's  from  my  view,  when 
John  Driscoll's  deep  murmur  broke  upon  me.  In  the 
dimness  I  could  see  his  hazel  eyes  take  an  unwonted 
fire  and  every  line  of  his  face  drawn  sternly. 

"  Mrs.  Dobell,  you  will  be  trying  to  do  your  husband 
a  great  injury  if  you  try  to  detain  him  now.  Whatever 
you  suspect,  it  is  too  late  to,  tell  your  suspicions.  He 
must  go,  and  I  must  go  with  him,  and  you  had  far  bet- 
ter let  us  go  in  peace." 

Somehow  the  sound  of  his  voice  put  rage  into  me  at 
once.  Perhaps  I  did  not  speak  as  loudly  as  I  seem  to 
have  spoken  ;  but  even  if  this  be  true,  I  marvel  how 
nobody  in  that  dead-still  house  heard  me,  admitting 
the  somnolent  effects  upon  everybody  of  recent  fatigues. 

"  You  are  a  wretch,  and  I  hate  you,  John  Driscoll. 
It  was  you  who  counselled  him  to  go.  I  heard  you 
last  night.  You  have  encouraged  him,  I  daresay,  in 
that  other  wickedness.  I  wish  neither  he  nor  I  had 
ever  known  you." 

He  had  left  off  holding  my  hand  after  my  first  irate 
sentence  or  two.  And  straightway  he  hurried  toward 
Fuller,  then,  gently  pushing  him  downstairs,  whilst  I 


354  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

went  angrily  on.  When  I  had  finished  he  made  instant 
answer,  in  a  clear  severe  whisper,  standing  on  the  fourth 
or  fifth  step  of  the  stairs  ;  Fuller  being  now  nearly  in- 
visible to  me. 

"  One  thing  I  must  beg  of  you,  and  I  am  sure  your 
husband  joins  with  me  in  asking  it :  Mention  to  no  one 
what  you  have  seen  or  what  you  believe.  If  you  do  so, 
you  may  have  cause  to  regret  the  consequences  all  your 
life.  As  regards  what  you  say  of  me,  Mrs.  Dobell,  I 
know  you  don't,  you  can't  mean  a  word  of  it." 

It  did  not  seem  very  long  afterward  that  I  heard  them 
open  the  lower  hall-door  and  then  close  it  again.  I 
went  back  into  my  room,  and  as  I  went  there  was  the 
sound  outside  of  the  departing  carriage. 

It  is  now  about  eleven  in  the  morning.  I  have  heard 
the  servants  pass  downstairs,  but  I  doubt  if  mamma  is 
up  yet. 

Whatever  was  to  be  done  is  done,  I  suppose,  by 
this  time.  One  thought  stabs  me  daggerwise  whenever 
I  think  it  :  if  I  had  not  gone  to  that  ball,  this  horror 
would  never  have  occurred.  Shall  I  not  feel  like  his 
murderess  if  the  very  worst  happens  ?  But  good 
Heavens  !  I  went  there  in  the  wild  hope  of  serving 
him. 

John  Driscoll  has  sealed  my  lips  with  silence.  I  shall 
tell  nobody — not  even  mamma.  If  the  man  is  notmade 
of  stone  he  will  bear  me  early  tidings.  And  yet  per- 
haps he  does  not  believe  I  would  care  much  for  anything 
that  might  take  place,  having  been  chilled  into  uncon- 
cern by  my  doleful  loveless  experience.  But  he  must 
have  seen  the  truth,  must  he  not,  from  my  behavior 
when  they  went  this  morning  ? — from  what  I  showed  him 
at  the  Delmonico  dancing-class,  a  little  while  before  my 
illness  ? 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


355 


The  truth  ?  Yes,  yes— the  bitter  dreary  truth  that  I 
love  as  a  beaten  dog  loves — that  I  would  give  years  off 
my  life  now  to  see  him  well  and  safe — that  I  cannot 
starve  my  love  to  death,  for  it  would  rather  feed  on 
its  own  fervor  than  die  outright,  and  wears  a  strength 
as  of  talhmanic  cause,  blow-baffling  as  some  surge- 
»ock. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

[PRIL  4. — I  am  sitting  in  my  room,  waiting  for 
John  Driscoll  to  come  ;  he  cannot  well  refuse  to 
come  after  what  I  have  written  him  and  after 
what  passed  between  us  last  night  at  the  Bartholomews'. 
Whilst  I  wait,  Diary,  I  may  as  well  write  it  all  out  and 
so  ease  this  agony  of  restlessness.  Some  women  would 
walk  the  floor  and  cry,  during  a  like  suspense  ;  some 
would  sit  still  and  moan  or  groan.  I  write  it  in  my  diary. 

Hard  work  it  was  to  behave  composedly,  yesterday, 
when  mamma  and  I  met.  If  John  Driscoll  had  not 
pronounced  those  warning  words  just  as  they  two  left 
on  their  mysterious  unmysterious  errand,  I  should 
doubtless  at  once  have  made  her  conversant  with  the 
thorough  particulars  about  Fuller's  going.  As  it  was, 
I  simply  held  my  tongue  on  the  subject  and  felt  very 
like  screaming  with  nervousness  once  or  twice,  whilst 
she  discussed  in  terms  of  serene  satisfaction  the  success 
of  last  night's  party. 

The  day  " crept  along  on  a  broken  wing."  I  spent 
it  principally  in  looking  out  of  my  three  windows,  one 
after  another.  Every  time  that  a  carriage  stopped  any- 
where near  the  house  I  grew  cold  and  began  to  tremble. 
O  day  of  misery  !  I  would  rather  die  than  live  through 
another  like  you  !  I  would  rather  know,  as  perhaps  I 
am  going  to  know,  that  he  is  lying  somewhere,  killed. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Somewhere  !  If  somewhere,  why  not  here  in  his  own 
home  ?  Does  John  Driscoll  think  to  hide  such  a  crime 
as  that  would  be  from  the  world's  scrutiny  ?  If  so  he  is 
an  arrant  fool — and  yet  I  know  him  too  well  to  write 
him  down  a  fool.  But  whether  fool  or  knave,  he  is 
grossly  cruel. 

I  had  breakfasted  so  late  in  my  own  room  that  I  easily 
escaped  appearing  at  luncheon.  But  dinner  was  a  dif- 
ferent matter.  If  I  wanted  to  conceal  my  anxiety  from 
mamma  it  would  be  well  for  me  to  go  downstairs,  I  told 
myself,  when  dinner-time  came,  and  attempt  the  double 
hypocrisy  of  eating  as  if  I  wanted  to  eat  and  talking  as 
if  I  wanted  to  talk. 

Which  I  did.  And  whilst  at  dinner  I  made  an  easy 
discovery.  Mamma  was  herself  on  evident  thorns  in 
the  matter  of  Fuller's  absence.  Someone  had  brought 
her  prompt  tidings,  doubtless,  of  the  difficulty  at  the 
opera-ball,  even  though  it  had  occurred  just  during  the 
time  of  her  departure  ;  and  now  she  was  drawing  gloomi- 
est deductions  from  his  continued  absence,  and  having 
vague  fears  as  to  what  had  become  of  him.  But  of 
course  her  anxiety  was  not  a  tithe  of  mine,  unless  some- 
.one  had  also  borne  her  tidings  to  correspond  with  my 
own  wretched  experience  of  the  night  before  ;  and  this, 
considering  John  Driscoll's  marked  desire  for  secrecy, 
was  not  at  all  probable. 

It  was  right  odd,  our  mutual  masquerading,  our  mut- 
ual attempt  to  throw  dust  in  each  other's  eyes.  There 
was  indeed  an  element  of  grim  humor  in  it  which  made 
me  feel,  every  now  and  then,  like  breaking  out  into  a 
bitter  laugh.  She  evidently  thought  that  I  knew  noth- 
ing, and  did  not  dream  how  far  my  knowledge  surpassed 
her  own. 

Once,  toward  the  end  of  dinner,  I  felt  a  kind  of  Ian- 


358  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

guid  curiosity  to  see  how  she  would  act  if  given  a  good 
opportunity  of  confiding  to  me  her  fears.  Henry  had 
left  the  room.  And  so  I  asked  : 

"  Don't  you  think  it  queer  that  Fuller  should  have 
been  away  all  day  and  now  not  be  at  home  to  dinner  ?  " 

Instantly  she  was  up  in  hypocritical  arms.  "  Not  at 
all,  Helen  ;  not  at  all.  I  daresay  he  has  gone  driving 
with  somebody  and  then  will  dine  at  the  club." 

"  I  did  not  think  of  that,"  I  succumbed,  whilst  she 
eyed  me  keenly  with  an  assumed  appearance  of  not  eye- 
ing me  at  all.  Yes,  she  was  ready  to  fight  tooth-and- 
nail  against  my  even  having  a  suspicion  of  what  she  sus- 
pected. Perhaps  if  I  had  known  nothing  I  should  never 
at  all  have  guessed  her  knowledge.  As  it  was,  I  seemed 
to  have  anointed  eyes,  somehow,  in  the  matter  of  read- 
ing her  anxiety.  Twice  when  the  hall-bell  rang  I  saw 
her  color  change,  beyond  any  shadow  of  a  doubt ;  and 
when  Henry  asked  whether  Mr.  Dobell's  dinner  was  to 
be  kept  for  him,  I  watched  her  across  the  brim  of  my 
claret-glass  and  knew  by  her  mouth  (that  most  treacher- 
ous of  all  human  features)  how  Henry's  question  was 
suggesting  a  train  of  thought  at  least  not  purely  pleasant 
for  his  mistress. 

11  Are  you  going  to  the  Bartholomews'  to-night  ?  "  I 
abruptly  asked,  when  we  had  gotten  as  far  as  dessert. 

"  Oh,  of  course,"  came  her  prompt  response.  Then 
it  was  plain  to  me  that  a  certain  recollection  had  sud- 
denly assailed  her.  For  the  first  time  since  I  have 
known  mamma,  she  stammered.  "That  is,  I  had  in- 
tended— one  can't  tell  if  anything  is  going  to  happen, 
you  know — or  rather  I  don't  mean  this,  precisely,"  (a 
soft  laugh  fluttering  among  her  words,  right  here)  "  but 
—but—" 

Then  I  broke  in,  my  voice  hard  as  iron.     Henry  had 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  359 

permanently  left  the  room.  All  during  dinner  I  had 
been  making  up  my  mind  that  it  was  best,  for  politic 
reasons  if  for  no  other  reasons,  to  empty  before  her  my 
dismal  budget  of  bad-tidings.  And  I  emptied  it  after 
this  fashion  : 

'•'The  thought  has  just  struck  you,  mamma,  that  if 
anything  horrible  has  happened  to  Fuller,  the  Bartholo- 
mews' will  be  no  place  for  you.  Am  I  not  about 
right  ?  " 

"  Helen  !  "     She  looked  all  superb  surprise. 

"  And  so  you  have  been  believing  me  an  entire  ig- 
noramus, all  along,  regarding  certain  matters  ?  "  After 
speaking  so,  I  paused  for  a  little  space  and  laughed  a 
hollow  horrible  laugh  that  startled  me  and  made  me 
hurry  on  :  "  I  wish  I  had  been  !  God  knows  I  wish  I 
had  been  !  "  'And  then  I  told  her  everything  that  has 
lately  passed,  from  my  wild  ball-going  to  last  night's 
wilder  developments  ;  but  I  told  only  bare  facts. 

There  came  a  long  interregnum  of  silence  when  I  had 
gotten  to  the  end  of  my  story.  "  Why  did  you  not  tell 
me  this  before  ?  "  she  at  last  questioned,  her  stately 
calmness  restored  to  her  after  having  been  lost  more 
than  once. 

Long  before  finishing  I  had  risen  from  the  table  and 
begun  to  wander  here,  there,  everywhere  about  the 
dining-room.  When  I  answered  her  now  I  was  still 
this  sort  of  mild  nomad:  "I  suppose  I  ought  to  have 
done  so,  your  interests  being  Fuller's  in  the  matter  of 
concealment.  John  Driscoll's  parting  statements  de- 
terred me,  doubtless."  (Ah,  if  she  had  only  been 
some  other  kind  of  confidante  than  the  mass  of  buckram- 
clad  pride  and  coldness  and  self-love  that  I  know  she  is  ! 
What  delight,  then,  to  wind  arms  about  her  and  be  com- 
forted !) 


360  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Mamma  sat  speechless  and  unmoving  for  quite  a 
while,  with  eyes  fixed  upon  her  finger-bowl.  Then  she 
abruptly  rose  up  and  came  in  my  direction. 

"  Helen."     Her  voice  rang  with  decision. 

I  replied  with  a  questioning  look. 

"  Helen,  it  will  be  best  for  both  of  us  to  go  to-night. 
Indeed  it  is  nearly  imperative  that  we  should  both  go. 
You  understand,  don't  you  ?  " 

"I  think  I  do.  You  mean  that  we  will  seem  to  be 
aware  of  the  whole  matter  if  we  stay  at  home.  We 
must  go  and  ask  people  if  they  know  where  Fuller  is,  I 
suppose.  For  my  own  part,"  (sighing  an  exorbitant 
sigh)  "it  seems  as  though  I  shall  become  mad  if  this 
suspense  lasts  much  longer."  Then  I  broke  into  my 
bitter  laugh.  "From  what  I  have  told  you  and  from 
what  you  have  seen,  you  must  know  by  this  time  that 
I  am  stilLa  fool  in  the  matter  of  caring  for  him.  I  ought 
really  to  be  callous  and  icelike,  as  far  as  affections  go  ; 
then  your  schemes  at  Newport  last  summer  and  at  Pine- 
side  this  fall,  would  have  had  a  trifle  more  consistent  re- 
sults." 

She  turned  pale,  knitting  her  brows.  "  How  dare 
you,  Helen  !  " 

I  tossed  my  head,  with  a  reckless  sneer  on  my  lips. 
"  Pshaw  !  of  course  you  do  not  dare  deny  that  you 
grossly  deceived  me  about  that  woman  from  the  very 
first,  telling  me  that  Fuller  scarcely  knew  her  when  you 
were  right  certain  how  well  he  knew  her.  There  was 
never  viler  deception  used  ! "  I  dashed  on,  warming 
more  ragefully  with  each  new  word.  ' '  You  sold  me  to 
Fuller  Dobell — sold  me  in  return  for  the  name  you 
prized  as  so  precious  !  And  more  than  this,  he  recog- 
nized the  whole  proceeding  as  a  beastly  barter  j  for  I 
have  heard  his  own  lips  admit  as  much." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  36! 

She  gave  a  short  choked  cry,  then,  and  came  very 
near  me.  "  This  is  all  a  shameless  falsehood  ;  and  who- 
ever tolcl  it  you  is  a  liar  whom  you  disgrace  yourself  by 
believing." 

I  broke  into  a  broad  ironic  smile,  right  under  the 
shadow,  so  to  speak,  of  her  august  face  ;  I  took  my  ear 
between  thumb  and  forefinger  and  turned  it  toward  her 
with  all  the  insolence  of  which  I  am  mistress ;  I  cared 
no  more  for  her  wrath,  just  then,  than  for  the  buzz  of  a 
gnat. 

"  My  own  ear  told  me,  and  that  I  trust  more  than 
certain  people's  words  of  honor.  It  was  only  two  or 
three  days  ago  that  you  awakened  me  from  a  nap  I  was 
taking  in  the  front  parlor,  you  and  your  respected  son- 
in-law,  by  a  certain  interview  held  a  few  yards  off.  No 
information  as  to  the  real  facts  of  my  marriage  could 
have  been  much  more  explicit,  I  think  ;  all  the  repul- 
sive details  were  gone  through  -with  ;  I  heard  the  whole 
scandalous  chronicle  and  felt  myself  tingling,  of  course, 
with  sweet  filial  reverence  whilst  it  lasted." 

My  words  by  this  time  had  wrought  an  immense 
change  in  her  who  heard  them.  Ah,  how  marvellously 
she  has  every  passion  under  control,  each  obedient  to 
the  common  rein  of  policy  !  I  am  reminded,  when  I 
recall  this,  of  a  man  I  once  saw  at  the  circus,  who  dashed 
in  whilst  riding  more  or  less  simultaneously  five  or  six 
galloping  horses.  Now  two  or  three  of  them  would 
dart  ahead  at  a  seemingly  tameless  pace  ;  now  these 
wrould  slacken  speed  and  others  rush  to  take  their 
places  ;  now  appeared  a  dire  confusion  in  their  unman- 
ageable midst,  a  turmoil  of  reared  heads  and  jostling 
flanks:  but  slowly  out  of  chaos  order  would  dawn,  and 
at  length  horse  after  horse  moved  along  in  tractable 
canter,  subservient  to  its  rider's  quiet  compelling  rule. 
16 


362  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

So  with  mamma  :  she  lets  her  passions  have  their  heads 
for  a  certain  distance,  then  comes  the  little  decisive  pol- 
itic hand-jerk,  and  anger  or  spite  or  jealousy  or  revenge, 
or  whatever  be  the  passion's  name,  falls  into  the  ranks 
again  with  all  becoming  docility.  Ah,  she  can  be 
queenly  enough  in  her  majesty  of  manner,  I  am  learn- 
ing, but  can  cringe  and  fawn  and  wheedle  underneath  it 
all,  with  a  most  sycophantic  suppleness. 

(Ought  I  to  write  these  things  ?  She  is  my  mother. 
Well,  well,  she  is  also  the  woman  who  has  set  herself  to 
the  task  of  maiming,  spoiling,  half-crushing  my  life,  that 
she,  for  her  part,  may  hurry  along  at  a  more  prosperous 
speed,  whilst  I  crawl  through  the  rest  of  my  days  in 
wounded  weariness.) 

The  immense  change  I  have  mentioned  was  a  grand 
mild  composure  in  place  of  all  past  fierceness.  When 
she  spoke  I  am  sure  that  her  altered  voice  made  me 
smile  sneeringly.  "  I  am  sorry  you  heard  anything, 
Helen  ;  but  be  sure  that  without  knowing  it  you  exag- 
gerate the  story  of  what  you  did  hear.  And  at  least  " 
(with  a  superb  straightening  of  her  figure  that  looked 
like  the  silent  denial  of  some  most  undeserved  charge) 
t(  you  must  admit  that  my  advice  to  Fuller  was  in  every 
respect  admirable.  However,  let  us  change  the  subject 
and—" 

"  Yes,"  I  assented,  "let  us  change  the  subject  by  all 
means.  What's  done's  done,  I  suppose,  and  you  will, 
have  to  defend  your  conduct,  no  doubt,  before  a  haugh- 
tier judge  than  I  could  ever  make  myself."  These 
words  were  spoken  whilst  I  walked  doorward.  Reach- 
ing the  threshold,  I  turned  abruptly  round.  "  I  am  go- 
ing to-night,"  was  my  announcement,  "unless  some- 
thing horrible  in  the  way  of  news  shall  reach  us  before 
then.  It  will  be  easier  to  go  than  to  remain  at  home." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  363 

('  And  perhaps/  my  thoughts  were  adding,  '  I  shall  see 
John  Driscoll  there.  It  may  be  that  he  dare  not  stay 
away,  no  matter  what  has  happened.') 

And  so  we  went,  mamma  talkative  though  evidently 
depressed  during  the  ride  Delmonicoward,  I  simply  dead 
quiet  when  not  monosyllabic. 

It  was  a  huge  ball.  There  had  not  only  been  sent  an 
invitation  to  everybody  who  was  worth  inviting,  but  to 
the  rural  cousin  of  such  everybody,  I  should  suppose, 
and  his  maiden  aunt.  All  the  familiar  faces  were  there, 
plumlike ;  and  manifold  unfamiliar  faces,  puddinglike. 
I  raked  the  rooms  for  John  Driscoll,  not  expecting  to 
find  him.  I  did  not  find  him. 

It  was  nearly  one  o'clock  before  the  cotillon  began. 
Three  men  asked  me  to  dance  it  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  evening,  and  I  gave  to  each  of  them  the  same  an- 
swer:— It  was  uncertain  whether  we  should  stay  or  not. 
I  meant  that  provided  I  could  see  John  Driscoll  and 
have  a  few  words  with  him,  all  object  in  staying  would 
be  ended  and  all  interest  in  these  festal  halls  become 
veriest  ashes  of  indifference.  Then,  too,  something 
horrible  might  be  told  me  by  John  Driscoll,  which  would 
make  further  stay  impossible. 

But  when,  just  before  the  cotillon  commenced,  Clar- 
ence Sedgewick  was  the  fourth  to  want  me  for  a  partner, 
(and  Heaven  only  knows  why  !  since  surely  I  was  dull 
enough  and  conversationless  enough  to  be  shunned 
rather  than  sought  by  my  old  dancing-friends)  then  I 
felt  a  yearning  desire  to  stay  still  longer  and  not  miss 
the  chance,  vague  as  it  was,  of  John  Driscoll  yet  mak- 
ing his  appearance. 

But  for  this  yearning  desire,  five  minutes  of  that  bab- 
bling befurbelowed  throng  would  have  turned  me  deadly 
faint,  doubtless.  I  should  have  gotten  home,  somehow, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

whether  mamma  vetoed  my  going  or  not.  As  it  was,  I 
would  have  insisted  on  remaining,  even  though  mamma 
commanded  me  to  depart.  Which  mamma,  throned 
with  numerous  dowagers  on  a  dais  at  the  further  end  of 
the  ball-room,  plainly  did  not  dream  of  doing. 

Clarrie  Sedgewick  talks  very  well.  His  ideas  leave 
the  man  on  oiled  wheels,  and  it  isn't  the  glibness  of 
flippancy,  either.  But  oh,  what  efforts  I  had  to  make 
that  he  should  be  answered  with  the  proper  *  yes/  the 
appropriate  '  no/  the  suitable  '  certainly ' ! 

The  cotillon  was  more  than  half  over.  That  vague 
chance  of  John  Driscoll's  coming — of  his  coming,  even 
though  anything  dreadful  had  happened  during  the  day, 
because  of  averting  suspicion  and  keeping  matters  se- 
cret— had  grown  the  merest  speck  of  probability.  I 
was  tired  of  staring  at  the  doorways.  I  had  begun  to 
feel  the  first  mild  torments  of  a  fresh  anxiety  :  perhaps 
horrible  news  had  come  to  mamma  or  myself  whilst  we 
had  been  merrymaking  here  ;  perhaps  even  John  Dris- 
coll  himself  had  gone  to  find  me  and  had  heard  where  I 
was  and  laughed  to  himself:  "  much  she  will  care,  any- 
how," or  some  such  comment,  and  so  delayed  giving 
me  the  tidings. 

Just  then  Ludlow  Inmann  flitted  up  to  take  me  out. 
He  offered  his  hand  ;  I  took  it  whilst  rising.  Then, 
suddenly,  I  fell  back  into  my  chair,  gasping  forth :  "  You 
must  excuse  me,  this  time — I'm  so  tired — I've  not  been 
well,  you  know,  and  shouldn't  overtax  myself." 

He  smiled  forgivingly  and  flitted  off  again.  Truth  to 
tell,  my  heart  was  beating  with  such  wildness  that  I  felt 
afraid  to  dance.  For,  standing  in  a  doorway  nearly 
opposite  to  where  I  sat,  my  eyes  had  lighted  upon  Mel- 
ville Delano. 

He  was  talking  carelessly,  as  it  seemed,  to  three  or 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


365 


four  men.  I  cpuld  see  no  change  in  his  appearance, 
from  where  I  watched  him.  I  was  sure  that  he  had  just 
entered  ;  otherwise  he  could  never  have  escaped  my  de- 
tection. 

It  sounds  silly,  but  I  had  to  keep  myself  in  my  chair 
by  sheer  self-governing  force,  so  that  I  might  avoid 
rushing  across  the  floor  and  assailing  him  with  questions. 
As  it  was,  I  simply  sat  still,  pale  and  quivering,  with  the 
"  dancers  dancing  in  tune"  before  me,  and  the  Beauti- 
ful Blue  Danube  pealing  plaintive  and  delicious  in  my 
ears. 

Let  me  call  my  discovery  of  Melville  shock  number 
one.  Shock  number  two  followed  perhaps  a  good  min- 
ute later,  and  was  the  discovery  of  John  Driscoll.  He 
had  emerged  through  another  doorway,  and  was  stoop- 
ing down  to  say  something  in  the  ear  of  Mrs.  Chauncey 
Crawford.  I  suppose  that  shock  number  two  affected  me 
homeopathically.  Melville  Delano  was  the  bramble- 
bush  by  which  I  had  scratched  out  both  my  eyes,  so  to 
phrase  it;  and  John  Driscoll  was  now  the  means  of  my 
scratching  them  in  again.  I  stopped  trembling  ;  I  dare- 
say that  a  good  deal  of  my  color  came  back  to  me ;  and 
presently,  in  rapid  composed  tones,  I  was  telling  Clarrie 
Sedgwick  that  it  would  be  impossible,  because  of  fatigue, 
for  me  to  dance  any  more.  "  And  you  must  take  me 
over  to  Mr.  Driscoll,"  I  finished,  lightly.  "  I've  some- 
thing to  tell  him." 

"  Why  not  bring  Mr.  Driscoll  to  you?  " 

"No,"  I  laughed.  "The  mountain  will  go  to  Ma- 
homet, this  time."  I  rose.  "  Give  me  your  arm, 
please." 

We  crossed  the  ball-room,  leaving  it  by  a  different 
door  from  the  one  near  which  John  Driscoll  was  stand- 
ing. I  am  quite  sure  that  he  did  not  recognize  me,  if 


366  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

even  he  saw  me,  whilst  I  was  quitting,  the  ball-room. 
Presently  I  stood  with  Clarrie  Sedgwick  directly  behind 
him,  the  doorway  near  which  he  was  stationed  being  in 
front  of  me  and  the  passage-way  into  which  it  led  being 
behind.  There  was  no  escape  for  him  ;  it  was  a  sort  of 
stolen  march.  They  had  been  forced  to  put  double 
rows  of  chairs  just  in  that  part  of  the  cotillon  near  which 
he  stood,  because  of  its  immensity.  If  he  wanted  to 
avoid  me  he  would  find  avoidance  impossible — except 
by  a  brutal  rudeness. 

1 '  Just  go  and  touch  Mr.  Driscoll  on  the  shoulder,"  I 
instructed  Clarrie  Sedgwick. 

Which  Mr.  Sedgwick  did,  with  obedient  promptitude. 
Naturally  John  Driscoll  turned  on  being  so  saluted. 
And  turning,  he  instantly  encountered  me. 

I  did  not  need  to  raise  my  voice  loudly  ;  we  were  too 
near  each  other  for  that.  "  I  am  going  home  in  a  few 
moments  and  want  to  speak  with  you  before  I  go." 

He  stood  utterly  still,  both  hands  resting  on  the  back 
of  Mrs.  Crawford's  chair,  his  face  yet  turned  in  my  di- 
rection but  his  eyes  not  meeting  mine. 

"Mr.  Driscoll."  I  spoke  so  sharply  that  he  started, 
whilst  Mrs.  Crawford  and  three  or  four  more  of  the 
cotillonites  levelled  inquiring  stares  at  me  across  their 
shoulders. 

For  reply  he  came  and  stood  very  close  to  me.  Dur- 
ing a  moment  or  so  we  searched  each  other's  faces. 
Then  he  gave  me  his  arm.  "  Let  us  go  into  the  blue 
room,"  he  proposed. 

I  felt  as  if  I  were  walking  blue-roomward  along  the 
crater-edge  of  a  volcano.  What  horror  might  he  be 
waiting  to  tell  me  of  ?  We  had  reached  an  extreme 
corner  of  the  chamber  before  either  of  us  spoke.  He 
motioned  for  me  to  share  a  sofa  with  him,  but  I  would 


PURPLE  AND  FINE-LINEN.  367 

not  do  it.  I  was  going  to  drink  my  bitter  draught 
standing,  whatever  it  was.  "  For  God's  sake  don't  delay 
any  longer,"  I  made  harsh  appeal,  glaring  at  him  with 
hungriest  eyes.  "  Melville  Delano  is  here  ;  I  have  seen 
him.  So  whatever  has  happened  must  have  happened 
to  Fuller." 

Straightway,  after  that,  he  began  speaking.  "  I 
should  have  seen  you  before  now.  It  was  my  purpose 
to  have  gone  at  once  to  your  house,  but  I  have  been 
detained — unavoidably  detained — from  doing  so.  I 
never  dreamed  of  finding  you  here,  but  came  because 
it  was  best,  for  appearance's  sake,  that  I  should  come." 

"End  this  maddening  palaver,"  I  cried,  "  and  let 
me  know  whether  Fuller  is  dead  or  alive  !  " 

John  Driscoll  took  both  my  hands  in  both  his  own, 
so  drawing  me  toward  the  sofa.  I  am  not  sure  whether 
there  was  anybody  within  fifty  yards  of  us  or  not,  whom 
the  action  might  virtuously  horrify.  In  this  manner  he 
forced  me  to  sit  beside  him. 

"  I  speak  to  you,"  he  whispered,  still  keeping  my 
hands,  "  as  I  would  dare  speak  to  hardly  any  one  else. 
This  morning  there  was  a  meeting  between  Fuller  and 
Delano." 

My  heart  stood  still  as  he  paused.  "Well?"  I 
managed. 

"  Fuller  has  been  wounded." 

"Badly?" 

"  Very  badly.  I  ought  not  to  give  you  any  hope. 
There  is  just  a  chance  and  no  more." 

I  remember  wanting  to  articulate  the  question  "  where 
have  you  taken  him?",  failing,  and  then  suddenly  see- 
ing the  gaslights  all  dancing  fandangoes  with  each 
other  :  and  after  this  all  was  a  nothingness  until  I  found 
myself  in  the  ladies'  dressing-room,  seated  in  a  large 


368 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN 


chair,  with  John  Driscoll  at  one  side  of  me  and  mamma 
at  another.  Beyond  these  there  were  a  few  more 
faces. 

"  It  was  imprudent  of  Mrs.  Dobell  to  dance,  as  she 
herself  told  me  this  evening,  just  before  she  fainted," 
John  Driscoll  was  lying  to  somebody. 

"  Yes,"  abetted  mamma.  "  To-night  is  the  first  time 
that  she  has  danced  since  her  dreadful  illness." 

And  thus  it  happened  that  I  made  a  prudent  return 
to  consciousness,  if  I  may  so  term  it ;  asking  no  strange 
wild  questions  concerning  Fuller  and  Fuller's  where- 
abouts. Very  soon  afterward  I  was  taken  downstairs 
to  my  carriage,  leaning  on  John  Driscoll's  arm,  mamma 
following.  I  never  imagined  that  he  was  not  going  to 
ride  home  with  us.  As  mamma,  after  entering,  closed 
the  door,  I  made  a  sharp-voiced  objection. 

"  No  ;  no  ;  "  I  cried.  "  John  Driscoll  is  coming.  I 
must  see  him." 

And  then  the  carriage  rolled  off,  just  as  mamma  was 
answering  : 

"  He  will  see  you  as  soon  as  possible  to-morrow.  *He 
cannot  come  with  us  to-night." 

After  that  I  buried  myself  in  one  corner  of  the  car- 
riage, speechlessly  wretched.  Mamma  was  very  audi- 
ble during  the  drive  home.  John  Driscoll  had  told  her 
everything  that  he  told  me  ;  but  no  more,  as  I  soon 
leaded. 

Ijfcvill  say  nothing  of  the  night  I  have  passed.  I  shall 
always  remember  it  shudderingly.  Of  this  I  am  sure  : 
no  worse  could  possibly  be  in  store  for  me. 

Before  nine  o'clock  this  morning  I  had  sent  John 
Driscoll  two  notes — one  to  his  house,  one  to  his  club. 
These  notes  were  prayers  for  him  to  lose  no  moment  of 
time  in  coming  to  me.  And  now  it  is  past  eleven  and 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


369 


he  is  not  here  yet.  Perhaps  after  all  he  is  not  so  cruel  ; 
perhaps  he  is  only  a  coward  and  hates  to  come  and  tell 
me  of  Fuller's  death. 

Where  can  Fuller  be  now  ?  As  I  write  the  question  a 
loathsome  thought  enters  my  head.  Oh,  no,  no,  no  ; 
I  will  brush  the  thought  away  from  me  as  we  brush 
something  black  and  beastly.  John  Driscoll  could  not 
have  taken  him  there. 

But  if  he  has  truly  done  so  vile  an  action,  and  if  God 
cares  a  whit  for  his  creatures,  whether  they  smile  or 
suffer,  whether  they  laugh  or  groan,  then  I  am  sure  that 
John  Driscoll  must  answer  for  that  action  to  God.  But 
ah,  is  there  a  God  that  cares  ?  I  am  getting  to  ask  that 
question,  nowadays,  again  and  again.  At  any  time  my 
faith  would  rise  and  fall  like  the  sea  ;  but  now  I  am 
afraid  it  is  nearly  one  perpetual  ebb-tide  with  me, 
and— 

A  ring  at  the  bell.     This  must  be  John  Driscoll. 


16* 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

5.— It  was  John  Driscoll.  He  was  just 
entering  the  reception-room  when  I  dashed  up 
to  his  side. 

"  You  must  pardon  my  not  coming  sooner,"  he  in- 
stantly began,  on  seeing  me.  "  It  was  not  possible.  I 
have  been  with  Fuller  since  I  left  you  last  night;  except 
during  a  few  moments." 

"  He  is  not  yet  dead,  then?  " 

"No." 

"  But  he  is  dying.  I  see  it  in  your  face,  John  Dris- 
coll." 

He  shook  his  head  decisively.  "  You  may  see  wor- 
riment  and  sleeplessness  in  my  face,  but  be  sure  that 
you  see  no  such  gloomy  conviction  there." 

I  gave  a  short  glad  cry,  drawing  nearer  to  him. 
"  The  danger  is  passing  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all.  He  may  not  live,  only  there  is  no  im- 
mediate danger."  Then,  marking  my  look  of  horror: 
"Mind  you,  I  say  may  not.  I  cannot  precisely  tell 
what  the  doctors  think.  I  daresay  they  are  afraid  of 
giving  an  opinion.  The  ball  has  been  extracted,  but  it 
is  a  bad  wound,  with  danger  of  bad  hemorrhages." 

"  But — where — have — you — taken — him?  Why — 
did — you — not — bring — him — here  ?  "  I  jerked  out 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  371 

each  word,  pausing  after  it,  dreading  the  answer  that 
was  to  come. 

He  stared  floorward ;  he  would  not  look  at  me  whilst 
that  answer  was  given.  "  It  was  thought  best  to  keep 
him  hidden,  you  know.  If  he  had  been  brought  here 
the  matter  would  have  become  public  in  a  day  or  two." 

"  But  you  have  not  answered  my  first  question,"  I  per- 
sisted, a  little  gaspingly.  "  Where  has  he  been  taken?" 

He  spoke  shortly,  rather  coldly.  "  You  would  not 
know  if  I  should  tell  you." 

"  Are  you  sure  of  that,  John  Driscoll  ?  "  I  cried,  with 
raised  voice  and  shrill.  "  Answer  me  at  once.  An- 
swer me,  for  I  shall  know  !  Where  have  you  taken  my 
husband  ?  "  I  caught  his  arm  roughly,  here.  "  Is  he 
or  is  he  not  in  Edith  Everdell's  house  now  ?  " 

As  the  name  left  my  lips  he  lifted  his  head  suddenly. 
And  suddenly,  too,  his  eyes  seemed  brimful  of  sympa- 
thy, compassion,  tenderness.  "You  must  not  blame 
me,"  he  murmured.  "  Fuller  is  there.  It  was  not  my 
fault.  By  Heaven,  I  swear  to  you  that  it  was  not  my 
fault.  I  believe  she  bribed  one  of  the  doctors  to  have 
his  quarters  changed  last  night,  whilst  I  was  absent : 
for  at  the  risk  of  his  life  I  found  he  had  been  moved 
when  I  got  back."  All  this  he  spoke  in  his  rapid  ear- 
nest way,  and  with  one  of  those  abrupt  little  brisk-  toned 
outbursts  that  in  other  days  used-  so  to  charm  me — in 
other  days,  and  upon  oh,  such  different  subjects  !  Af- 
terwards he  went  on  much  slower  :  "  But  pray  believe 
that  he  has  every  imaginable  care.  No  means  of  saving 
him  shall  be  left  untried.  If  the  worst  happens  it  will 
happen  because  nothing  could  avert  it." 

There  was  quite  a  little  silence  before  I  spoke  again  ; , 
certain  thoughts  had  been  darting  through  my  head  and 
so  keeping  me  wordless.     Presently  I  asked  : 


372  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

fc 

"  Do  you  know  Edith  Everdell  at  all  well  ?  " 

His  eyebrows  went  up.  "I?  I  know  her ;  that  is 
about  all." 

"If  you  don't  know  her  well,"  I  hurried,  sneeringly, 
"  you  are  so  rich  that  it  is  merely  from  lack  of  inclina- 
tion, I  suppose.  Answer  me  :  has  she  an  atom  of  true 
womanly  feeling  ?  Or  is  she  just  hard,  luxurious, 
brazen,  without  one  touch  of  human  goodness  ?  " 

His  face  was  solemn  and  thoughtful  ;  all  surprise  had 
left  it.  "I  think  she  is  hard  as  granite,"  he  stated, 
lingeringly.  Then,  after  a  brief  pause,  he  added : 
"  And  yet  her  nature  has  one  strange  softness.  Well, 
no  ;  I  suppose,  after  all,  it  is  not  strange." 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  I  wanted  to  know,  eager-voiced. 

"Her  love  for  her  child; — I  believe  she  was  once 
married  somewhere  and  to  somebody." 

"This  child  is  how  old  ?" 

"  About  fourteen,  I  think." 

"A  boy  or  girl?" 

"A  girl." 

"  And  she  is  being  brought  up  in  the  same  surround- 
ings as  those  of  her  mother?  " 

"  Indeed,  no  !  She  is  now  a  boarding-pupil  at  per- 
haps the  most  select  school  in  New  York.  Scarcely 
more  than  four  or  five  people  have  the  dimmest  suspi- 
cion of  who  she  really  is.  Madame  Langlois  herself  be- 
lieves her  to  be  a  Baltimorean  of  irreproachable  family ; 
— half  of  which  is  true,  for  nearly  all  her  life  has  been 
passed  in  Baltimore.  I  have  reason  to  know  that  Edith 
Everdell  worships  that  child  ;  doubtless  because  she  is  a 
part  of  herself,  one  of  her  own  possessions.  Not  to  see 
her  for  years,  as  except  by  occasional  stolen  glimpses 
she  has  not  seen  her,  must  be  a  most  bitter  trial  ;  but 
she  bears  it  with  a  stoic  nerve  for  the  sake  of  the 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


373 


child's  after  good.  Then,  too,  she  has  given  this 
adored  daughter  (who,  by  the  bye,  is  already  right 
beautiful,  I  have  heard)  the  name  of  Adele  Tremaine, 
and  she  means  to  make  the  real  story  of  her  origin  as 
utter  a  secret  as  such  a  thing  possibly  may  be  made.  I 
should  not  be  astonished  to  hear  that  she  has  hoarded, 
for  years  past,  many  an  easily-earned  dollar  which  was 
believed  to  have  been  squandered  as  soon  as  earned, 
and  that  Adele  Tremaine  will  some  day  be  an  heiress  of 
no  contemptible  income." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  I  murmured,  half  to  myself,  "  I  remem- 
ber. It  is  the  beautiful  pupil  of  whom  Madame  Lang- 
lois  spoke  to  me  when  she  called,  just  before  my  mar- 
riage. How  little  I  dreamed,  at  the  time,  of  whose 
child  she  was  speaking  !  "  Then  I  suddenly  changed 
the  subject,  forgetting  in  a  trice  all  about  Adele  Tre- 
maine and  Madame  Langlois.  ''John  Driscoll,"  I 
cried,  with  imperative  passionate  force,  "  you  must  get 
me  to  Fuller,  somehow." 

"'It  is  wholly  impossible.     Pray  do  not  ask  me." 

"But  I  shall  ask  you,  and  I  shall  go,"  I  stormed. 
"  It  is  brutal  for  you  to  refuse.  Help  me  there,  or  I 
will  go  myself.  I  can  find  the  house  where  that  creat- 
ure lives." 

He  looked  at  me  in  my  despairful  rage,  with  a  gentle 
pitying  look  that  was  wholly  lost  on  me,  then.  "  You 
cannot  go.  It  is  not  even  a  matter  to  be  discussed." 

"  But  my  husband  is  dying  ;  you  will  admit  that." 

"  I  admit  that  he  may  be  dying." 

"Then  what  better  excuse  do  I  want  for  going  to 
him,  no  matter  where  he  is  ?  Let  me  tell  you  some- 
thing, John  Driscoll."  And  now  I  clasped  both  hands 
together,  and  looked  up  at  him  with  swimming  eyes, 
and  there  were  many  breaks  in  my  voice  as  I  went  on, 


374  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

for  the  tears  had  begun  to  flow  at  last.  "  God  help  me, 
I  love  Fuller  Dobell  as  well  now  as  I  did  the  day  he 
married  me  ;  and  you  know — ypu  must  know — how 
little  reason  that  love  has  ever  had  to  live  !  But  it  has 
lived,  John  Driscoll,  and  it  will  not  die,  and  the  thought 
of  his  lying  wounded  is  as  awful  to  me  now  as  it  would 
have  been  on  my  wedding-morning.  I  know  you  are 
going  to  help  me  get  to  him  !  For  old  friendship's 
sake,  John  Driscoll—  "  and  then  sobs  choked  me,  whilst 
he,  having  caught  both  my  hands,  was  looking  the  pict- 
ure of  earnest  sympathy,  meeting  my  tear-blurred  eyes 
with  his  own  warm-colored  hazel  ones. 

"For  old  friendship's  sake  I  would  do  a  great  deal, 
Helen  Dobell,"  his  mellow  murmur  told  me.  "But 
surely  I  shall  need  different  sort  of  urging  from  that,  if 
I  take  you  where  you  are  too  pure  to  go." 

"But  in  such  a  cause,"  I  pleaded,  wildly,  "what 
matter  if  I  soil  myself  a  little  ?  I  don't  care  a  fig  if 
people  sneer  at  me  forever  afterward.  Those  whom  I 
like  at  all  (and  Heaven  knows  they  are  few  enough  !) 
must  think  as  I  think  : — that  it  was  right  for  me  to  be 
near  my  husband  at  any  imaginable  hazard." 

"The  world  could  not  discuss  the  matter,  for  the 
world  knows  absolutely  nothing  of  its  occurrence.  Ful- 
ler's absence  from  home  must  be  explained  by  your 
mother  as  owing  its  cause  to  certain  business-troubles 
with  her  Western  property.  It  is  well  known  that  she 
has  property  in  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis ;  so  the  story 
will  be  credited  at  once.  Everybody  who  knows  about 
this  affair,  and  could  be  bribed  to  hold  his  tongue,  has 
been  so  bribed,  and  liberally.  And  every  unbribable 
person  has  individual  reasons,  it  happily  occurs,  for  hold- 
ing his  tongue.  The  place  and  the  time  have  both  been 
greatly  in  our  favor,  as  far  as  concerns  discovery ;  but 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  375 

what  has  been  more  in  our  favor  than  either  of  these,  is 
the  glaring  improbability  that  in  this  age  and  in  this  coun- 
try any  two  men  would  presume  to  engage  in  a  duel. 
Duels  are  nearly  as  much  out  of  fashion  as  white  wigs 
and  tricorne  hats — even  in  France,  who  used  so  to  love 
them.  They  are  occasionally  still  talked  about  by  men 
of  a  certain  stamp,  but  nowadays  when  a  gentleman  is 
insulted  by  his  servant  or  his  equal,  it  is  very  much  the 
same  thing  ;  he  must  cowhide  both — if  he  can.  If  he 
can't,  why  there  are  outrages  beyond  a  particular  limit 
which  a  law-court  may  possibly  remedy.  No  ;  the 
feeble  likelihood  of  there  having  been  a  duel  is  going  to 
save  us  from  discovery  more  than  anything  else,  I  feel 
quite  confident.  If  the  suspicion  once  arose  and  inves- 
tigation was  made,  I  daresay  that  even  our  intense  cau- 
tion and  secrecy  would  be  of  slight  avail.  But  think  of 
it :  New  York — duel ;  how  the  two  ideas  meet  each 
other  like  oil  and  water,  refusing  to  unite!  The  great 
point,  in  a  case  of  this  sort,  is  always,  not  as  much  to 
disarm  suspicion  as  to  prevent  it  from  ever  waking  at 
all."  He  seemed  half  addressing  his  own  thoughts, 
now,  whilst  he  went  on  :  "It  sounds  right  daring  to  say 
so,  but  I  firmly  believe  that  the  whole  matter  will  re- 
main (at  least  for  many  months  to  come)  a  profound 
secret  to  the  world.  Unless,  of  course,  poor  Fuller 
dies." 

"When  I  spoke  of  the  comments  which  might  be 
made,"  came  my  quick  answer,  "  I  meant  provided 
Fuller  should  die.  For  I  believe  he  is  going  to  die  ; 
something  tells  me  so.  And  in  that  case  you  could' 
keep  nothing  secret.  Ah,"  (whilst  I  grew  suddenly 
fierce  amid  my  tears)  "I  hope  they  would  hang  Mel- 
ville Delano  for  murder  !  I  should  like  to  pull  the  rope 
myself." 


376  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

John  Driscoll  gave  a  shoulder-shrug,  his  brow  slightly 
clouding.  "That  is  a  wild  way  to  talk,  and  quite  un- 
profitable. However,  though  Melville  Delano  would 
doubtless  be  tried  for  murder,  I  question  whether  it 
would  be  possible  to  make  any  jury  render  such  a  ver- 
dict. True,  he  need  not  have  accepted  Fuller's  chal- 
lenge. Only  a  few  men  would  have  accused  him  of 
cowardice  if  he  had  not  accepted  it ;  and  these  would 
quickly  have  been  silenced ;  there  are  always  means  of 
silencing  anybody  whose  opinions  run  counter  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  modern  progression,  and  all  such  high- 
sounding  sentiment.  Whoever  presumed  to  consider 
the  challenge  \vorthy  of  notice  would  perhaps  be  told 
that  he  had  recently  fed  himself  overdoses  of  Ouida;  that 
enlightenment  and  civilization  shrank  from  duelling  ;  that 
it  was  a  last  remnant  of-  old-world  barbarism.  The 
forcing  of  men  into  armies  and  the  slaughtering  of 
them,  thousand  after  thousand,  by  mitrailleuse  and 
needle-gun  and  chassepot,  because  two  kingly  gentle- 
men, each  with  his  own  private  ambitious  axe  to  grind, 
have  chanced  to  meet  at  the  same  grindstone — this  sort 
of  thing  has  no  barbarous  flavor,  it  seems,  to  the  fas- 
tidious souls  whom  duelling  horrifies.  For  my  own 
part,  I  must  confess  that  when  Fuller  came  to  me  whilst 
yet  quivering  under  the  sense  of  grossest  outrage,  I 
could  conscientiously  give  him  no  counsel  except  that 
which  I  did  give.  True,  he  might  have  gone  about 
with  a  horsewhip,  searching  for  Delano,  and  on  finding 
that  person  have  run  the  muscular  chances  of  having 
the  horsewhip  seized  from  him  and  used  on  his  own 
back  ;  but  I  somehow  didn't  care  to  advise  such  a  pro- 
ceeding. I  knew  Melville  Delano  well  enough  to  under- 
stand that,  although  he  has  the  temper  of  a  fiend,  he 
has  also  a  courage  proportionate  with  it,  and  is  just  the 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  377 

man  of  all  others,  in  this  age  and  this  country,  to  accept 
a  challenge  if  he  received  one.  Fuller  was  literally  mad 
after  some  satisfaction  of  precisely  that  sort,  and  nothing 
different.  And  so  I  began  arrangements  at  once,  after 
securing  as  help  two  or  three  of  the  cleverest  heads  I 
know.  As  for  results,  I  am  sure  there  were  no  deadly 
intentions  on  either  side.  What  happened,  happened 
through  accident.  Melville  Delano  himself  assured  me 
of  this  immediately  after  the  meeting ;  and  I  believe 
him.  Indeed,  the  meeting  took  place  with  an  under- 
standing between  all  engaged  that  mortal  wounds  were, 
in  so  far  as  was  possible,  to  be  avoided." 

I  was  all  tearful  impatience  when  I  answered  him  : 
"  Pray  let  us  waste  no  more  words  on  any  subject  but 
one,  and  that  is  the  getting  me  to  Fuller's  bedside." 

"  I  cannot  get  you  there."  His  decision  of  tone  had 
clear  traces  of  harshness. 

I  moved  doorward.  "Just  as  you  please,"  I  told 
him,  between  clinched  teeth.  "  I  shall  go  myself. 
She  dare  not  refuse  me  admittance.  If  she  does,  I  am 
not  such  a  fool  but  I  know  how  to  snap  her  power  like 
a  reed." 

"Stop!"  he  cried,  hurrying  up  to  me.  "If  you 
don't  take  good  care  you  will  expose  this  whole  mat- 
ter." 

"  And  how  should  it  concern  me  if  all  the  world  knew 
it  ? "  I  questioned,  laughing  a  little  bitter  laughter. 
"  Melville  Delano  and  you  and  every  other  active  par- 
ticipant deserve  punishment  and  ought  to  get  it." 

"  In  God's  name,  don't  speak  so  loudly  !  " 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  care  whether  you  get 
punishment  or  not.  I  do  not  care  for  anything  except 
seeing  Fuller.  Whatever  wild  impolitic  thing  I  do,  you 
mustn't  blame  me  when  it's  done.  You  will  have  no 


373 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


right  to  blame  me  then,  for  you  refuse  to  help  me  now; 
and—" 

"  Stay."  He  caught  my  arm  whilst  peering  intently 
into  my  face.  "  You  speak  of  my  helping  you.  These 
are  words  rattled  off  at  random.  How  can  I  help  you, 
as  far  as  concerns  the  going  privately  to  Edith  Everdell's 
house  ?  Reflect  a  moment,  and  you  will  see  the  folly 
of  your  demand." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  privately  ?  Without  the 
knowledge  of  Edith  Everdell  herself?  If  so,  under- 
stand that  I  am  willing  she  shall  see  me  at  Fuller's  bed- 
side. Do  you  suppose  that  her  presence  there  would 
keep  me  away  ?  " 

Just  as  my  querulous  voice  ended  this  question  his 
face  got  an  absorbed  look,  he  lifted  his  hand  forehead- 
ward,  drooped  his  head  a  trifle  and  stared  at  the  floor. 
"  Perhaps,"  he  at  length  began  to  loiter,  meditatively, 
* 'perhaps—" 

"Well,"  I  broke  out,  with  sharp  haste,  "perhaps 
what?" 

He  fixed  his  eyes  on  me,  then,  and  commenced  rap- 
idly to  speak.  "Rather  than  have  you  go  as  you 
threaten  going,  I  would  resort  to  almost  any  deterring 
expedient.  One  such  expedient  suggests  itself,  hardly 
feasible,  doubtless  impossible." 

"  Let  me  hear  it — that  is,  provided  it  be  a  means  of 
getting  me  near  Fuller," 

"  It  is  a  means  of  doing  so  ;  or  rather  might  be,  if 
successfully  used.  But  I  warn  you  that  it  sounds  un- 
real, theatrical,  novelish." 

"  Never  mind  that.     Let  me  hear  it." 

"There  will  be  a  permanent  nurse  hired  for  Fuller 
some  time  during  to-day.  I  have  the  power  of  putting 
any  one  whom  I  choose  into  that  position — But  pshaw ! " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  379 

he  suddenly  broke  off,  smiling  a  broad  smile.  "The 
thing  is  not  really  worth  a  thought.  You  will  guess  the 
rest,  of  course." 

"  I  guess  only  this  much  :  that  I  might  take  the 
nurse's  place.  But  how  would  such  a  plan  prevent  me 
from  meeting  Edith  Everdell,  who  knows  me  by  sight 
as  well  as  I  know  her  ?  " 

"  You  did  not  guess  all."  He  walked  away  from  me 
with  folded  arms,  his  smile  nearly  gone.  "  Nor,  on  the 
whole,  were  you  stupid  in  not  guessing." 

"  But  tell  me  the  rest,"  I  persisted,  following  him  for 
a  few  steps.  Then  I  came  to  a  sudden  stand-still. 
"  Ah,  I  see  it,  John  Driscoll.  You  meant  for  me  to  go 
disguised,  somehow." 

He  wheeled  round  at  this  and  faced  me.  "  Yes  ;  that 
was  the  idea.  The  more  I  think  of  it  the  more  absurd 
it  seems." 

After  a  little  pause  came  my  reply.  "  I  don't  agree 
with  you.  It  might  be  done.  Its  being  novelish  and 
theatrical  doesn't  make  it  impossible.  After  the  first 
ordeal  of  having  her  stare  at  me,  there  would  probably 
be  no  chance  of  detection  ;  no  chance  if — " 

"  If  the  disguise  were  good  enough." 

"That  is  precisely  the  point.  I  think  I  could  make 
it  so,  but  I  am  not  sure  yet." 

He  shook  his  head  in  an  intense  negation.  "  I  am 
sure.  You  could  never  accomplish  such  a  thing.  For 
a  few  moments  and  under  a  certain  light  it  might  be 
carried  out ;  but  for  days,  possibly  weeks—"  and  here 
he  grew  abruptly  very  grave  indeed,  as  though  the 
whole  plan  were  appearing  to  him  in  new  colors. 
"  You  in  that  house  for  days  and  weeks  !  "  he  muttered, 
harsh-voiced.  "  God  forbid  it !  " 

"  Never  mind  that  consideration,  if  you  please,"  I 


380  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

hurried,  warmly.  "  It  is  trivial  enough  compared  with 
the  motive  that  takes  me  there.  Let  me  think,  let  me 
think."  And  now  I  stood  with  bent  head  and  a  hand 
touching  either  temple.  "  I  shall  need  a  whole  day  for 
experimenting — the  rest  of  to-day  at  least.  You  tell 
me  that  there  is  no  immediate  danger  of  Fuller's  dying ; 
and  yet  whilst  I  am  testing  my  powers  of  disguise  he 
may  be  cheating  me  of  one  last  look  at  his  living  face. 
But  I  will  risk  it.  I  will  begin  preparations  at  once. 
If  I  am  ever  ready  I  shall  be  ready  by  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, as  early  as  you  please." 

Trouble  and  incredulity  were  mixing  themselves  on 
his  face.  "  No,  no,"  he  disapproved;  "the  scheme 
will  not  hold  water  three  minutes.  Remember,  we  do 
not  deal  with  a  fool." 

I  looked  at  him  firmly,  then.  "Would  you  rather 
have  me  go  disguised,  with  a  vague  chance  of  non-de- 
tection, or  without  the  vestige  of  disguise  and  with  the 
surety  of  recognition  ?  Whichever  you  prefer  I  am 
willing  to  do.  Only,  let  there  be  a  prompt  choice, 
please." 

"  I  advise  you  to  do  neither.  I  beg  of  you  to  do 
neither.  Twice,  three  times  a  day,  I  promise  to  send 
you  bulletins — 

"  Hush,  hush  !  "  I  nearly  shouted,  putting  a  palm 
before  each  ear.  "  I  will  not  listen  to  you.  Go  I  shall, 
somehow.  I  am  willing  to  make  trial  of  the  plan  that 
you  proposed,  or  that  you  only  had  half  enough  courage 
to  propose.  Shall  I  begin  at  once  ?  Pray  answer  me 
immediately,  yes  or  no." 

He  lifted  both  hands  and  let  his  head  fall  sideways,  in 
a  "  do-as-you-please  "  sort  of  fashion. 

"  Very  well,"  I  hurried,  "  my  preparations  shall  begin 
on  the  instant.  If,  when  all  is  ready,  it  is  all  a  failure, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  381 

you  can  but  tell  me  so.  Meanwhile,  will  you  promise 
to  send  me  word  if  any  change  whatever  takes  place 
in  Fuller's  condition  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  will  you  promise  to  come  here  between  nine 
and  ten  this  evening,  so  that  I  can  show  you  what  I 
have  done  and  get  your  approval  or  disapproval  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Very  well.  Now  you  had  better  see  mamma,  since 
she  must  be  instructed  what  sorts  of  falsehoods  to  tell 
about  Fuller's  absence." 

"  And  your  own  also,  if  you  carry  out  this  mad 
freak." 

"  Leave  your  instructions  on  that  point  until  I  am 
well  out  of  the  house.  If  you  do  not,  mamma  will  sim- 
ply make  a  useless  attempt  to  detain  me.  Indeed,  she 
might  exasperate  me  to  such  an  extent  that  loud  talking 
and  possibly  shrieks  would  go  far  toward  the  exposure 
you  seem  to  dread.  So  mind,  not  a  word  to  her  about 
my  purposed  absence.  When  I  am  gone  you  and  she 
can  arrange  at  pleasure  some  clever  excuse."  My  hand 
was  on  the  knob  of  the  door,  now.  "  I  will  have 
mamma  told  that  you  are  here.  Remember  your  prom- 
ftes."  Then  I  left  him. 

After  giving  orders  that  mamma  should  be  told  of 
John  Driscoll's  presence  in  the  reception-room,  I  sped 
upstairs  to  my  own.  A  moment's  pause,  here  ;  thence 
with  good  haste  into  my  dressing-room  and  straight  to- 
ward my  dressing-table.  After  that  came  a  long  stare 
at  myself  in  the  looking-glass. 

Blond  hair.  Blond  hair  can  be  made  any  sort 
of  hair  nowadays,  so  as  to  defy  detection  of  the  art 
that  alters  it.  This  is  the  age  of  dyes  and  fluids  and 
wigs.  There  would  be  slight  trouble  about  the  hair's 


382  PURPLE  AND  -FINE  LINEN. 

thorough  concealment.  That  might  be  already  treated 
as  a  surmounted  difficulty. 

Blue  eyes.  What  earthly  art  can  change  blue  eyes  to 
brown,  black  or  gray  ?  None.  But  there  is  a  way  of 
making  them  colorless,  unnoticeable.  That  way  is  a 
pair  of  dark  spectacles. 

Next,  complexion.  I  suppose  there  are  modes  of 
staining  this  ;  anyhow,  whether  yes  or  no,  I  shrank 
from  the  idea.  Surely  Edith  Everdell  had  not  seen 
enough  of  me,  I  told  myself,  to  recognize  me  by  any 
such  slight  means.  But  the  tints  were  too  fresh  for  an 
elderly  female  ;  and  I  wanted  to  be  an  elderly  female, 
with  spectacles  and  grey-touched  hair.  Well,  here  was 
a  danger.  A  fresh-tinted  elderly  female,  however,  is 
by  no  means  an  impossibility.  I  would  risk  the  com- 
plexion. 

Next,  costume.  There  must  be  a  dark  stuff-dress, 
not  at  all  exaggerated  in  its  primness  of  make-up. 
There  must  also  be  a  cap  ;  no  suspiciously  poky  and 
capacious  affair  ;  but  something  shapely  and  pretty,  with 
just  a  vague  touch  of  nattiness. 

So  much  for  the  physical  disguise  :  assuredly  it  should 
be  sufficient  to  a  woman  who  has  not  seen  me  ten  times 
in  her  life,  if  even  that  number,  and  who  has  not  then 
once  seen  me  much  more  than  momentarily.  -  As  for 
the  mental  disguise,  there  the  chief  requirement  is  of 
course  an  assumption  of  far  greater  nursing  knowledge 
and  experience  than  I  really  possess.  In  this  I  may 
fail  partially  ;  it  will  be  hard  to  fail  absolutely.  I  know 
something  of  nursing  ;  what  I  do  not  know  I  must  try 
to  assume. 

Let  us  waive  the  details,  Diary,  concerning  where  I 
went  and  what  I  did  to-day.  It  is  late,  and  there  is 
work  for  me  to-morrow,  beginning  before  daybreak. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  383 

This  evening,  between  eight  and  nine,.  John  Driscoll 
kept  his  promise  about  coming.  Luckily,  mamma  was 
in  the  parlor  with  some  guests.  He  asked  for  me  and 
was  shown  into  the  reception-room,  as  I  had  given  or- 
ders that  he  should  be.  I  slipped  downstairs  (at  the 
awkward  risk  of  meeting  somebody)  in  my  full  disguise 
of  nurse,  be-wigged  and  spectacled  and  aproned  and 
capped.  It  seems  absurd  to  write  that  he  was  so  com- 
pletely unprepared  for  my  appearance  in  the  reception- 
room  as  not  only  not  to  know  me  when  I  entered  it,  but 
not  to  suspect  for  several  minutes  after  my  appearance 
there  who  I  really  was.  I  might  have  deceived  him  a 
long  while  but  for  my  keenness  of  anxiety  to  learn  about 
Fuller's  condition. 

"The  disguise  is  purely  perfect,"  he  commented, 
wide-eyed  and  in  wondering  tones.  "  I  did  not  dream 
you  could  make  it  so  good." 

"  Never  mind  the  disguise  till  you  have  told  me  about 
Fuller." 

"  He  sleeps  nearly  all  the  time.  He  is  no  worse  and 
no  better  than  when  I  saw  you  last.  The  doctors  an- 
ticipate some  decisive  change  to-morrow." 

"And  can  I  not  go  there  with  you  to-night?"  I 
wanted  eagerly  to  know.  "  I  have  a  portemanteau  all 
packed  and  ready.  There  is  a  perfect  opportunity  for 
leaving  the  house  whilst  mamma  is  occupied  with  her 
visitors." 

"  No,  no,"  he  objected.  "  I  have  told  them  that  the 
nurse  will  come  at  a  very  early  hour  to-morrow  morn- 
ing. My  bringing  you  to-night  might  rouse  just  that 
first  glimmer  of  suspicion  which  we  wish  to  avoid  rous- 
ing." 

I  sighed  a  great  sigh.     "  Perhaps  you  are  right." 

"It  is  almost  always  customary,"  he  went  on,  "for 


384  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

men  nurses  to  be  engaged,  in  a  case  like  the  present." 
Then,  smiling  with  a  queer  humorous  gravity:  "  But  I 
have  represented  you  as  a  person  of  such  extraordinary 
skill  that  your  sex  is  looked  upon  as  a  trivial  objection. 
Have  you  any  skill,  by  the  bye  ?  " 

"Some.  Not  much.  I  shall  be  inspired,  perhaps. 
I  wish  you  would  let  one  of  the  doctors  into  the  secret 
of  who  I  am,  provided  you  can  trust  him." 

1 '  It  is  precisely  what  I  have  thought  of  doing.  And 
now  to  arrange  about  your  leaving  the  house.  You  had 
better  leave  very  early.  I  will  call  for  you  as  I  called  " — 
He  stopped  short,  averting  his  eyes. 

"  As  you  called  for  Fuller.  You  have  the  latch-key 
yet  which  he  gave  you  ?  " 

"  Yes.  And  I  will  come  at  the  same  hour — five 
o'clock.  That  will  not  be  too  early,  I  trust.  No  one 
was  wakened  before,  and  it  is  fair  to  trust  that  the  same 
opportunity  will  occur  again." 

"  There  would  be  no  use  of  my  bothering  you  to  call 
for  me,"  I  made  answer,  "  were  it  not  for  the  porteman- 
teau,  which  is  large  and  heavy,  and  which  I  don't  think 
I  could  very  well  get  out  of  the  house  alone.  But  for 
this  I  could  put  on  a  veil  and  slip  from  the  house  at  al- 
most any  time  of  day." 

"  Don't  think  of  the  bother,  please,"  he  responded, 
kindly.  "  I  will  come  at  five,  in  a  carriage.  We  can 
drive  about  until  six,  and  at  six  we  can  make  our  ap- 
pearance where  we  are  expected.  You  have  but  just 
found  yourself  freed  from  a  long  engagement,  and  you 
are  entering  upon  your  duties  with  the  least  possible 
delay:  that  is  about  how  the  case  stands." 

"  I  shall  be  ready.  You  will  not  have  to  knock  at 
my  door  as  you  had  to  knock  at  Fuller's,"  I  could  not 
help  adding,  in  bitter  afterthought. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"And  do  you  feel  any  confidence  in  yourself?  I 
trust  so.  Your  disguise  is  just  admirable." 

I  laughed  a  little.  "  My  confidence  is  strong 
enough,  for  the  reason  that  I  am  reckless  and  don't  care 
much  whether  she  finds  me  out  or  no." 

He  bit  his  underlip  anxiously.  "But  pray  don't 
let  your  recklessness  make  you  wholly  careless  in  the 
matter  of  exposure.  Please  be  prudent  and  run  no 
foolish  risks  of  discovery.  And  trust  that  I  speak  the 
truth  when  I  tell  you  one  thing :  this  advice  to  you 
springs  partly  from  a  clear  knowledge  of  Edith  Ever- 
dell's  nature,  partly  from  a  certainty  that  my  judgment, 
just  now,  is  cooler  and  better  than  yours.  There  is  no 
use  of  thrusting  one's  head  causelessly  into  the  lion's 
mouth.  Any  act  of  temerity  seems  such  a  little  thing 
to  you  now,  but  you  may  have  reason  to  repent  at 
leisure  what  you  perform  in  haste.  You  are  young  yet : 
one's  feelings  and  interests  change  marvellously  as  one 
ages.  The  world's  malice  and  scandal  seem  a  slight 
evil  to  you  now,  but  some  day  all  that  may  alter.  And 
I  should  like  to  warn  you  with  a  certain  formula  of 
warning  again  and  again  :  Edith  Everdell  is  a  woman 
whose  malevolence  is  always  worth  the  going  a  little 
out  of  one's  way  to  shun." 

Shortly  after  that  he  went.  I  have  had  no  business, 
wakeful  as  I  have  felt,  to  spend  all  this  time,  Diary,  in 
telling  you  what  has  passed.  Five  o'clock  is  so  fear- 
fully early.  I  must  at  least  go  to  bed  and  try  to  sleep. 

17 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

|PRIL  7. — I  am  in  that  creature's  house.     I  have 
been  here  a  day  and  a  night. 

John  Driscoll  found  me  ready  and  waiting  for 
him.  We  quitted  the  house  without  rousing  a  soul,  as 
far  as  I  could  discover.  At  a  late  hour  last  night,  John 
Driscoll  told  me,  he  had  left  Fuller  sleeping  tranquilly. 
We  drove  about  for  a  good  hour,  sometimes  talking, 
sometimes  keeping  silent.  At  last,  when  it  was  full 
daylight,  my  companion  gave  his  order  to  the  coach- 
man. As  the  carriage  stopped,  he  turned  toward  me, 
murmuring : 

"  If  your  courage  fails  you  it  is  not  too  late  to  change 
your  resolution." 

I  laughed  for  reply.  Then  he  got  out  and  I  followed 
him. 

We  had  to  ring  three  times  before  the  bell  was  an- 
swered. An  obese  ugly  woman  finally  came  to  the 
door,  clad  in  a  white  sacque  and  petticoat  and  suggest- 
ing, with  her  disorderly  hair  and  half-shut  red  eyes,  re- 
cent arousal  from  slumber.  John  Driscoll  pushed  past 
her  through  the  jealously-opened  door,  I  following. 

"Have  you  been  sitting  up  with  Mr.  Dobell  ?  "  he 
questioned  of  this  ill-favored  portress,  whilst  we  stood 
in  the  dim  hall. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


387 


"Yes,  sir,"  the  woman  answered,  with  an  appearance 
of  forced  respect,  just  beginning  to  take  into  her  sleepy 
brain,  as  it  seemed,  an  idea  of  whom  she  had  admitted. 
"That  is,  I've  been  dozin'  on  the  lounge  by  fits  and 
starts." 

"  How  does  he  appear  ?  " 

"  He's  sleepin'  all  right,  I  guess.  He  hasn't  woke  up 
durin'  the  night,  not  as  I'm  aware  of." 

"  You  will  please  carry  this  portemanteau  upstairs  and 
show  this  lady  the  room  she  is  to  occupy.  She  is  the 
newly-engaged  nurse  for  Mr.  Dobell."  Then,  turning 
toward  me,  whilst  I  was  being  searched  by  those  sleepy 
eyes:  "When  Margaret  has  shown  you  your  room, 
Mrs.  Peters,  she  will  take  you  to  Mr.  Dobell's.  I  will 
wait  for  you  there." 

Margaret  at  length  left  off  her  steady  stare  at  me, 
and  transferred  it  rather  inimically  to  the  portemanteau. 
Looking  martyrlike,  she  presently  stooped  to  her  bur- 
den. John  Driscoll  hurried  upstairs  first,  disappearing 
before  Margaret  and  I  had  accomplished  many  steps. 

I  was  taken  into  a  little  room  on  the  third  floor  ;  a 
front  room  and  neatly  furnished.  But  mine  was  no 
mood,  just  then,  for  the  examination  of  its  details. 
After  I  had  expedited  in  getting  off  my  bonnet  and' 
shawl, 

"  I  shall  not  need  to  remain  here,"  I  told  her. 
"  Show  me,  if  you  please,  directly  to  Mr.  Dobell's 
room." 

"  It's  right  next  to  this,  ma'am,"  she  gladdened  my 
heart  by  answering.  "  You  can  open  that  door  and  go 
straight  in  whenever  you  please.  That's  why  Mrs. 
Everdell  give  you  this  room." 

"  Oh,  very  well."  I  took  a  glance  at  myself  in  the 
toilette-glass.  I  was  simply  a  commonplace  refined- 


388  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

looking  elderly  person,  with  dark-green  glasses  ;  noth- 
ing more.  Who  could  remotely  suspect  me  of  being 
anything  else  ?  By  the  bye,  my  glasses  had  already 
become  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  to  me.  It  isn't  at  all  nice, 
I  find,  to  pass  a  bottle-green  existence,  the  way  some 
weak-sighted  people  must  do,  merely  guessing  at 
one's  favorite  colors  when  one  meets  them,  and  having 
little  except  the  difference  in  size  to  assure  one  that  a 
rose  is  not  a  cabbage-head. 

"  Shall  we  go  in  now?"  I  asked  of  Margaret  with 
my  hand  on  the  door-knob,  which  I  need  only  turn 
to  find  myself  in  Fuller's  presence.  Then,  without 
waiting  for  Margaret's  acquiescence,  I  did  turn  the  knob 
and  enter. 

A  large  room,  lit  with  the  early  feeble  daylight. 
The  room  was  comfortable  even  to  luxury,  as  one  swift 
bottle-green  glance  assured  me.  When  I  looked  at  Ful- 
ler, lying  in  bed  with  shut  eyes,  I  had  to  fight  against  let- 
ting a  cry  leave  my  lips.  The  green  medium  through 
which  I  saw  his  drawn  livid  face  made  him  seem  more  aw- 
fully corpselike  than  he  really  was.  The  room  had  only 
one  other  occupant  when  we  entered  it — John  Driscoll. 
Whilst  he  and  I  stood  side  by  side  near  the  bed,  and 
whilst  I  found  myself  leaning  closer,  closer  toward  that 
wofully  altered  face  below  me,  I  heard  John  Driscoll 
murmur  in  rapidest  French,  as  though  alarmed  and 
distrustful : 

"  Take  care  not  to  seem  moved  at  all.  Margaret  is 
devoted  to  her  mistress  ;  and  it  would  be  a  bad  thing  to 
rouse  her  suspicions,  you  know." 

I  profited  by  the  advice,  which  was  needed,  I  must 
own.  Doubtless  I  should  have  said  or  done  something 
imprudent,  without  it.  Very  soon  I  became  aware 
that  Fuller  was  breathing  wi>h  regularity.  "  Is  he 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  389 

conscious  when  awake  ?"  I  presently  asked,  turning  to 
Margaret  with  a  voice  and  manner  all  composure. 

"  Well,  ma'am,  he  is  after  a  fashion.  He  looks 
round  as  if  he  knew  where  he  was,  sometimes,  but  he 
don't  never  speak  at  all.  The  doctors  say  it's  because 
he's  so  weak." 

"  And  has  he  slept  like  this  all  night  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  ma'am.  And  most  of  yesterday  he  was 
sleepin'  ;  only  he'd  wake  up  onct  in  a  while  and  look 
quite  sensible.  When  he  gets  his  medicine  it  don't 
seem  to  rouse  him  much  if  he's  sleepin'  already." 

Silence,  during  which  I  stood  staring  down  at  him, 
praying  that  Margaret  would  go  out  of  the  room. 
Which,  to  my  intense  relief,  Margaret  presently  did. 
The  instant  that  she  had  closed  the  door  I  hurried  off 
my  spectacles. 

"  That  is  imprudent,"  murmured  John  Driscoll. 

"  I  can't  help  it.  I  hate  them  so.  He  is  fearfully 
sick.  I  am  sure  that  he  cannot  live." 

"  You  must  not  think  that.  Dr.  Delmayne  will 
be  here  by  seven  o'clock.  I  have  made  them  give  him 
a  bed-room  on  this  floor,  and  he  has  agreed  to  remain 
here  nearly  all  the  time ;  so  that  your  office  of  nurse 
will  be  almost  a  sinecure." 

"  And  have  you  told  him  who  I  am  ?  " 

"  Yes.  I  saw  him  last  night  and  told  him  every- 
thing. He  has  rude  odd  manners,  but  underneath  them 
there  is  the  kindest  heart  conceivable.  Luckily,  he  has 
almost  if  not  quite  given  up  practice  in  consequence 
of  advanced  age,  and  he  is  therefore  willing,  for  friendly 
reasons,  to  spend  nearly  all  his  time  here." 

' '  To  think  of  that  woman  leaving  Fuller  in  this 
Margaret's  charge  !  "  I  murmured.  "  What  do  you  sup- 
pose were  her  reasons  for  ever  having  him  brought 


390 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


here  ?  One  would  suppose  that  she  would  have  shrunk 
from  the  risk  of  his  dying  on  her  hands.  Perhaps,  after 
all,  love  has  been  the  ruling  motive  with  her." 

"  Love,"  he  repeated,  in  scornful  whisper.  "  Love, 
indeed  !  She  chose  to  run  the  risk  of  his  dying.  She 
was  clever  enough  to  see  what  the  alienating  effects  of 
a  long  convalescence  away  from  her  house  might  be. 
He  is  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg,  you  know. 
Other  men  might  be  (are,  very  often)  her  devotees  for 
a  time.  But  this  man  believes  in  her,  and  his  faith  has 
a  certain  steady  marketable  value." 

I  shuddered,  answering  nothing. 

At  about  seven  o'clock  Dr.  Delmayne  made  his  ap- 
pearance. He  is  a  great  bonily-gaunt  man,  more 
than  six  feet  tall,  with  a  profusion  of  iron-grey  hair 
nearly  muffling  his  entire  face  and  leaving  little  of 
any  importance  visible  except  a  huge  hawklike  nose  and 
a  small  pair  of  dark  piercing  eyes.  Margaret  being 
present,  I  was  introduced  to  him  as  the  nurse,  Mrs. 
Peters,  and  greeted  with  an  ugly  grunt  and  the  fol- 
lowing mass  of  pell-mell  mumbled  sentences  : 

"  Heard  of  you  before,  Mrs.  Peters.  Splendid  nurse, 
I'm  told.  Hope  you'll  help  cure  our  patient  here. 
Going  to  try  something  in  that  line  myself.  Trust  we 
shan't  disagree.  Strength  in  unity,  you  know,  or  ought 
to  be,  though  't  isn't  often  there,  is,  because  nearly 
everybody's  conceited  enough  to  want  his  own  way  and 
swear  it's  the  best."  Then  Dr.  Delmayne  shut  both 
eyes  and  chuckled  resonantly,  as  though  he  had  just 
cracked  a  stupendous  joke.  "  I'm  going  to  have  my 
way."  (Opening  his  little  eyes  and  glaring  at  me.) 
"  So  that  ends  the  story." 

"No  doubt  you  will  find  that  we  shall  agree  very 
well,  doctor,"  I  replied  rather  cheerily. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  39! 

This  man  had  not  been  in  the  room  five  minutes  be- 
fore I  began  to  repose  in  him  a  certain  half-unconscious 
confidence.  For  fully  ten  minutes  he  sat  with  his  watch 
in  one  hand  and  Fuller's  wrist  in  the  other,  showing  just 
the  suggestion  of  a  sly  smile  under  those  bountiful  facial 
concealments.  And  it  was  a  smile  that  cheered  me, 
whatever  it  meant  to  do  ;  a  smile  that  seemed  to  spring 
from  some  hidden  hopeful  conviction  ;  a  smile  that  was 
like  a  very  low  whisper,  something  to  this  effect:  "I 
know  what  I  know,  but  I  shan't  tell  you  how  nice  it  is  ; 
so  that  ends  the  story." 

Between  seven  and  eight  breakfast  was  brought  up- 
stairs for  Dr.  Delmayne  and  myself.  Just  as  we  sat  down 
to  it  John  Driscoll  took  his  departure,  promising  to  re- 
turn in  an  hour  or  so.  And  then  Margaret,  who  had 
been  bustling  corpulently  about  the  room  ever  since  the 
doctor's  arrival,  with  no  explainable  motive  except  that 
of  curiosity,  chose  to  make  her  exit.  The  doctor  was 
employed  in  shattering  a  boiled  egg  whilst  I  addressed 
toward  him  a  large  relieved  sigh.  We  were  seated  op- 
posite one  another  at  the  little  breakfast-table  which  had 
been  improvised  for  us. 

"I  am  so  glad  that  woman  is  gone/'; I  burst  forth. 
"  She  is  such  a  nuisance.  Can't  she  be  kept  out  ?  " 

The  little  eyes  went  through  me,  to  use  a  strong 
figure.  "  Why  is  she  a  nuisance  ?  " 

"  Oh,  doctor,  I  feel  like  asking  you  every  five  min- 
utes how  he  is.  And  I  can't  do  it — I  don't  dare  trust 
myself  with  my  own  voice  whilst  she  is  here." 

The  doctor  threw  back 'his  head,  ruthlessly  executing 
a  roulade  of  chuckles.  "Don't  say!  Well,  he's  no 
worse.  That's  magnificent  news,  my  dear  Mrs. 
Peters "  (lingering  over  the  name,  nearly  chuckling 
over  it)  "  at  least,  you  ought  to  think  so,  though  I  dare- 


392 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


say  you  don't.  But  7  do  ;  and  my  opinion  isn't  to  be 
sneezed  at,  in  a  sick-room.  Now  eat  your  breakfast, 
Mrs.  Peters." 

"  I  can't  touch  a  morsel." 

He  jumped  up  from  his  seat  as  though  I  had  pricked 
him  with  a  bodkin,  or  something.  He  glared  at  me  as 
though  I  had  just  grossly  insulted  him. 

"What!"  he  evidently  wanted  to  scream,  but  did 
not  dare,  because  of  his  patient.  "  You  presume  to 
tell  me,  madam,  that  in  my  medical  presence  you 
dream  of  refusing  the  succulent  segment  of  beefsteak 
with  which  I  am  about  to  provide  you  !  Or  of  declin- 
ing the  nutritious  egg !  Or  of  discountenancing  the 
pleasant  potato !  Mrs.  Peters,  I  am  not  to  be  trifled 
with.  Mrs.  Peters,  if  it  were  not  for  the  Human  Stom- 
ach I  should  not  have  been  able  for  years  to  practise 
the  noble  profession  that  has  made  me  what  I  am. 
Mrs.  Peters,  do  you  suppose  that  I  will  tamely  sit  oppo- 
site you  and  see  the  Human  Stomach  insulted  ?  Mrs. 
Peters,  as  the  temporary  guardian  of  your  liver,  I  com- 
mand you  to  eat.  And  let  that  end  the  story."  Then 
he  sat  down,  still  glaring  at  me  with  the  little  needle- 
like  eyes. 

"But  you  are  evidently  going  to  eat  nothing  except 
that  egg,  doctor,"  I  made  mild  remonstrance.  "  And 
why  should  I —  ?  " 

"  You  are  a  young  woman,"  he  galloped,  in  snappish 
whisper.  "  I  am  an  old  man.  Five  years  ago,  Nature 
said  to  me,  '  Delmayne,  your  digestion  is  not  what  it 
used  to  be.  Stop  eating  liberally  three  times  a  day. 
Eat  liberally  once  a  day  instead.'  Like  the  fool  I  was, 
for  the  space  of  a  year  I  told  Nature  to  mind  her  own 
business.  She  did  so,  and  racked  me  with  dyspepsia 
by  the  process.  She  brought  me  round.  I  am  a  wiser 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


393 


man,  now",  with  improved  peptics,  going  breakfastless, 
luncheonless,  in  order  that  I  may  dine.  Let  me  eat  my 
egg,  if  you  please,  and  don't  throw  my  rickety  old  di- 
gestion in  my  rickety  old  teeth.  For  your  own  part, 
eat  yo.ur  own  breakfast,  Mrs.  Peters.  I  shan't  have  you 
fasting  ;  so  that  ends  the  story." 

It  was  hard  work,  but  I  managed  to  choke  down  some 
of  the  succulent  beefsteak  ancj  a  few  spoonfuls  of  the 
nutritious  egg.  As  for  the  pleasant  potato,  it  rather 
stuck  in  my  throat  when  I  tried  a  swallow  of  it ;  but  I 
got  down  a  good  cupful  of  hot  coffee.  "  Mr.  Driscoll 
has  told  you  all  about  me,"  I  presently  made  bold  to 
address  the  bearded  eccentricity  who  sat  opposite. 
"  You  know  who  I  am.  Consequently  you  must  under- 
stand my  intense  anxiety  to  learn  whether  your  patient 
is  the  least  shade  better  or  worse."  After  that  I  felt 
that  two  or  three  immense  tears  were  trickling  from  un- 
der those  horrible  spectacles.  "  Oh,  doctor,  if  you  find 
he  has  improved  only  ever  so  little  and  there's  some- 
body in  the  room,  will  you  not  make  me  a  sign  ?  I 
have  begun  to  trust  you  already,  but  I  shall  trust  you 
so  much  more  if  I  think  you  really  feel  for  me  in  my 
wretchedness." 

"Tut,  tut,  tut,"  he  bristled,  starting  up  from  the  table 
whilst  in  the  act  of  flourishing  his  napkin  against  his 
leonine  face.  "Don't  try  sentiment  with  me,  Mrs. 
Peters,  //"you  please.  I  abhor  it.  The  argumcntum  ad 
hominem  is  no  argument  at  all.  Excuse  me  ;  you  don't 
know  a  word  of  Latin,  of  course.  No  women  ever  do, 
nowadays,  and  hardly  any  men.  Sentiment  in  a  male 
mouth  is  usually  maudlin  weakness.  In  a  female 
mouth  it  is  usually  deceit,  pure  and  simple.  Come, 
oblige  me  by  wiping  your  eyes,  madam.  Mrs.  What's- 
her-natne  may  appear  at  any  moment,  so  you  had  best 
17* 


394 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


conceal  those  *  woman's  weapons,  water-drops,'  as 
Shakspeare  neatly  puts  it.  Mrs.  What's-her-name's  no 
fool,  I'm  told." 

Doubtless  his  gruff  tones  kept  me  from  shedding 
more  tears.  And  it  would  have  been  ill  luck  indeed 
had  I  done  so,  as  not  three  minutes  after  he  had  spoken 
the  door  was  unclosed,  and  "  Mrs.  What's-her-name  " 
moved  across  its  threshold  like  a  splendid  vision. 

Heavens  !  what  hearts  this  woman  might  have  broken 
if  she  had  been  positioned  in  the  world  Cleopatrawise, 
or  had  had  some  bloated  Roman  emperor  of  a  husband 
to  strangle  in  his  bath,  leaping  up  on  his  throne  and 
reigning  there  in  his  stead.  What  grace  had  the  gods 
not  given  this  new  Pandora?  She  had  only  knotted 
her  hair  behind  in  a  massive  careless  coil,  letting  it  rip- 
ple back  richly  from  either  pure  temple,  with  no  elabo- 
ration of  ringlet,  braid  or  puff.  Her  fawn-colored 
cachemire  morning-dress,  touched  here  and  there  with 
blue,  showed  all  the  lovely  lines  of  her  full-rounded 
figure  ;  which  ought  to  have  appeared  creditably,  by 
the  bye,  in  any  earthly  garment  possessed  of  a  waist 
and  arm-holes. 

"  How  is  he  this  morning,  doctor  ?  "  she  murmured, 
standing  at  Fuller's  bedside  and  looking  down  at  him 
with  those  marvellous  eyes.  For  myself,  she  had  not 
noticed  me  yet,  or  at  least  had  not  appeared  to  do  so. 

"  Don't  know,"  grunted  Dr.  Delmayne,  very  shortly, 
not  in  the  least  appalled  by  her  loveliness,  as  it  seemed. 
"  Oblige  me  by  never  asking  such  questions.  If  he 
were  worse  I  should  tell  nobody,  and  if  he  were  better 
I  should  keep,  at  this  uncertain  state  of  the  patient's 
case,  such  a  discovery  to  myself.  Have  you  seen  Mrs. 
Peters,  the  new  nurse  ?  If  not,  you  might  as  well  give 
her  the  time  of  day,  it  strikes  me :  and  so  end  the  story." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  395 

Whereupon  I  was  looked  at,  as  I  had  been  waiting  to 
be  looked  at,  whilst  I  stood  at  a  short  distance  from  the 
bed's  foot.  Her  look  had  nothing  specially  curious, 
nothing  unduly  penetrative.  And  then,  with  the  same 
voice  whose  suave  music  I  had  heard  before  we  now 
met,  (though  certainly  not  during  that  wretched  episode 
at  the  opera-ball)  she  spoke  a  few  words  to  me. 

"  Dr.  Delmayne's  rebuke  is  scarcely  deserved  ;  don't 
you  agree  with  me,  Mrs.  Peters  ?  But  then  "  (glancing 
Dr.  Delmayneward,  whilst  a  slow  sweet  smile  seemed 
to  light  her  lips  at  their  extremest  rosy  edges)  "  he 
makes  a  point  of  snubbing  everybody,  I  am  told.  And 
now  pray  tell  me  :  is  your  room  quite  comfortable  ? 
for  of  course  Margaret  has  shown  it  you  by  this  time." 

"  Yes,"  I  answered,  with  bold  composure.  "It  is 
very  comfortable,  besides  having  the  nice  advantage  of 
being  so  near  "  (I  moved  my  head  in  Fuller's  direction) 
"  the  gentleman  who  is  sick." 

"  Mr.  Dobell,"  she  softly  informed  me.  Then  her 
brows  gathered  a  little,  whilst  a  slight  smile  held  her 
lips  ;  and  she  came  many  paces  nearer  to  where  I  stood. 
"You  have  heard  the  name  before  now,  Mrs.  Peters,  I 
suppose  ?  Mr.  Driscoll  said  that  he  would  tell  you 
everything  and  gain  your  entire  confidence  before  en- 
gaging you.  He  has  done  so,  has  he  not  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  I  replied.  "It  is  understood  that  I  am 
to  keep  silence." 

Her  lovely  eyes  were  scanning  me  with  closer  observ- 
ance, now  ;  I  could  perceive  this  right  easily,  though 
her  wish  that  I  should  not  perceive  it  was  also  evident. 
Had  the  sound  of  my  voice  roused  in  her  some  glimmer 
of  distrust  ? 

"  Holding  one's  tongue  with  discretion  is  the  rarest 
of  human  virtues,"  asserted  Dr.  Dclmayne,  between  a 


396  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

pair  of  brusque  grunts.  "  Glad  to  see,  Mrs.  Peters, 
that  you're  a  woman  and  yet  dare  undertake  such  an 
awful  work.  You  can't  carry  it  out,  of  course.  If  you 
did  you  should  dress  in  white  ever  afterward  and  wear 
a  chronic  crown  of  something.  It  is  a  fact  that  I  was 
once  called  in  on  a  case  of  paralysis  of  the  tongue  ;  a 
female  case.  I  grinned  in  the  poor  thing's  face,  at  the 
consultation,  and  made  her  physician-in-ordinary  so 
rabid  that  we've  never  spoken  since." 

During  the  next  three  or  four  hours  no  observable 
change  took  place  in  Fuller.  Two  .other  doctors  ap- 
peared, one  a  "dilettante,  delicate-handed"  looking 
nabob  of  perhaps  thirty,  and  the  other  an  old  man  with 
a  pure  white  moustache  and  magnificent  manners.  Dr. 
Delmayne  snubbed  the  younger  gentleman  violently  about 
every  third  minute.  To  the  older  gentleman  he  granted 
a  hearing  semi-occasionally.  Almost  everything  spoken 
by  this  august  medical  conclave  was  lost  to  me,  for  I 
sat  at  a  good  distance  off,  beside  the  window,  in  the 
shadow  of  a  full  heavy  pair  of  curtains.  Edith  Ever- 
dell  was  not  in  the  room  during  the  doctors'  visit,  nor 
did  she  return  for  a  long  while  after  they  had  gone. 

I  believe  that  Dr.  Delmayne  and  I  grow  better  friends 
every  minute  that  we  are  left  alone  together.  I  have 
gotten  somehow  to  feel,  and  to  feel  intensely,  that  he  is 
already  my  stanch  ally  and  wishes  me  well  with  much 
hidden  warmth  of  kind-heartedness.  I  do  not  think 
that  I  am  learning  thus  to  like  and  trust  him  solely  be- 
cause of  what  John  Driscoll  told  me  about  his  real 
nature.  No  ;  my  trouble  has  given  me  a  kind  of  in- 
stinctive perception.  I  see  beyond  the  strange  rough 
outer  husk  clairvoyantwise. 

A  little  while  after  midday  Fuller  woke  up  from  his* 
lethargic  state  and  began  moaning  as  if  in  bitterest  pain, 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  39? 

and  turned  glassy  eyes  here  and  there  about  the  room. 
I  was  bending  over  him  with  quickened  heart  and  misty 
sight,  watching  the  doctor  administer  an  opiate,  when 
Margaret  rolled  herself  loungingly  into  the  room. 

Dr.  Delmayne's  eyes  took  their  sharpest  glitter  as  he 
fixed  them  suddenly  on  the  woman's  waddling  buxom- 
ness.  "  Did  you  come  in  here  for  anything  particu- 
lar?" he  pounced,  snappishly  inquisitive. 

Margaret  looked  all  stupid  surprise.  "  Not  as  I  know 
of,  sir." 

"Then  you'll  oblige  me  by  going  out  at  once.  If  I 
want  you  for  anything,  my  good  woman,  I'll  ring  for 
you.  Understand  ?  I'll  ring  for  you." 

The  fat-face  had  hardened,  by  this,  with  an  ugly 
brutish  kind  of  obstinacy.  "  Mrs.  Everdell  told  me  to 
come  in  here  every  onct  in  a  while  and  see  how  things 
was  gettin'  on,  sir." 

11  Did  she  indeed  ?"  queried  the  doctor,  every  word 
a  kind  of  mild  snarl.  "  Present  my  most  respectful 
compliments  to  Mrs.  Everdell,  and  repeat  to  her  just 
what  you  have  heard  me  say.  Now  go,  if  you  please,  at 
onct — to  adopt  your  own  corruption. of  a  nice  Saxon 
word.  Go,  my  good  woman ;  and  let  that  end  the 
story." 

But  Margaret  ended  the  story  with  much  scowling 
delay,  casting  one  malicious  glare  meward  from  the  pig- 
gish eyes,  before  removing  her  bulky  sulky  presence 
from  the  room. 

11  She  suspects  that  I  don't  want  her  here,"  I  mur- 
mured, a  moment  after  she  had  closed  the  door. 

"  Let  her  suspect  and  be I  regret,  for  only  the 

third  or  fourth  time  in  my  life,  that  I've  never  learned 
to  swear,  Mrs.  Peters.  As  it  is,  I  must  content  myself 
with  a  quos  ego. — Excuse  me,  by  the  bye  ;  being  a 


*  398  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

woman,  my  elegant  classic  allusion  is  of  course  wholly 
lost  on  you.  What  a  repulsive  nuisance  she  is,  that 
Margaret,  with  her  goings  and  comings  !  But  I  think 
I've  exorcised  her  this  time  for  you,  and  permanently." 

"I  hope  so." 

"  See  ;  he's  quieter  already.  The  opiate  is  doing  its 
drowsy  work  very  quickly."  Then,  looking  round  at 
me  most  abruptly,  with  the  tumbler  of  medicine  in  one 
hand  and  a  spoon  in  the  other :  "  Do  you  want  a  scrap 
of  comfort,  Mrs.  Peters?" 

"Oh,  doctor,"  I  quivered.  "Do  I  want  it!  Can 
you  ask  me  ?  " 

"Pshaw!  Don't  be  theatrical.  Yes  and  no  for 
ordinary  bodies — emotional  paraphrases  for  tragedy- 
queens  and  such  like.  This  man  here  has  got  stamina 
enough  for  a  cart-horse.  Mind,  I  don't  say  anything 
more.  '  Hope  springs  eternal/  et  cetera.  Draw  your 
own  deductions,  Mrs.  P.,  and  ask  me  no  silly  ques- 
tions." 

Which  piece  of  counsel  I  followed  by  simply  bursting 
into  tears.  It  was  a  very  quiet  cry,  and  only  lasted  a 
moment  or  two  ;  but  the  doctor  contemplated  me  whilst 
it  did  last  as  though  I  were  of  little  more  consequence 
than  a  convicted  murderess.  Then,  just  as  I  had  gotten 
myself  well  under  control  again,  and  just  as  he  had  be- 
gun to  make  me  the  victim  of  a  merciless  philippic,  the 
door  was  softly  unclosed  and  in  glided  Mrs.  Everdell. 

I  saV,  the  instant  I  looked  at  her,  that  she  was  an- 
noyed. She  moved  toward  the  bed  in  silence  ;  stood 
watching  Fuller  for  a  few  seconds  ;  walked  toward  one 
of  the  windows,  and  finally  spoke,  addressing  Dr.  Del- 
may  ne. 

"  Margaret  tells  me,  doctor,  that  you  have  just  sent 
her  out  of  the  room." 


PURPLE  AND   FINE  LINEN.  399 

"  Quite  true  for  Margaret.  Sublime  virtue,  truth; 
especially  in  women." 

Her  eyes  began  to  glitter  just  a  trifle.  "  Let  me  ask 
you  for  what  reason  you  sent  her  away." 

"  Superb  reason.  Didn't  want  her  here.  Nuisance  ; 
awful  nuisance.  Pokes  about ;  stares  with  those  ugly 
eyelets —can't  call  'em  eyes — and  makes  herself  gener- 
ally a  bore.  Isn't  it  so,  Mrs.  Peters  ?  "  with  sudden  ap- 
peal to  me. 

"  Perhaps  you  are  putting  it  rather  too  strongly, 
doctor,"  I  answered,  with  a  half-smile. 

And  then  I  found  myself  subjected  to  a  searching 
scrutiny  from  Margaret's  mistress.  "Do  you  share 
Dr.  Delmayne's  prejudice  ? "  she  presently  asked. 
"  Margaret  thinks  so,  and  feels  convinced  that  the 
doctor  has  acted  on  your  advice  in  sending  her  from  the 
room." 

Doubtless  I  was  most  imprudent  to  reply:  "Nor  is 
Margaret  very  far  from  wrong  in  so  believing.  I  did 
not  want  her  here.  But  I  regret  if  her  absence  dis- 
pleases you." 

"  How  on  earth  can  it,"  blurted  forth  the  doctor,  with 
far  greater  imprudence,  "  unless  Mrs.  Everdell  wanted 
to  make  a  spy  of  her  ?  " 

She  turned  upon  him  as  if  the  words  were  a  very  dag- 
ger-thrust. "  Spy,  Dr.  Delmayne  !  Be  careful,  please, 
what  words  you  use." 

"Thanks,  ma'am,  for  the  polite  warning,  but  I  gener- 
ally am.  Libel-suits  are  not  pleasant  things,  as  some 
people  learn  to  their  cost." 

Instantly  the  color  shot  up  into  her  face.  He  had 
touched  upon  some  tender  spot,  doubtless,  in  her  past 
life.  But  she  answered  him  with  bold  promptitude. 
"  It  was  my  intention  to  have  Margaret  act  as  your  as- 


4oo 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


sistant  here,  until  I  learned  Mr.  Driscoll's  wish  in  the 
matter  of  engaging  Mrs. — Peters.  She  is  a  servant  in 
whom  I  have  the  greatest  confidence,  and  would  have 
made,  I  think,  a  capital  nurse." 

I  felt,  then,  that  I  must  play  my  part,  or  else  bring 
upon  myself,  in  all  likelihood,  stronger  suspicion  than 
that  which  now  existed. 

"  I  hope,  ma'am,"  was  my  calm  statement,  "  that  you 
do  not  feel  opposed  to  my  remaining  here." 

Again  the  searching  scrutiny  of  those  exquisite  eyes. 
"  Opposed  ?  Oh,  no.  But  it  struck  me  as  peculiar 
that  a  female  nurse  should  have  been  engaged.  Are 
you  often  called  upon  to  attend  gentlemen  ?  I  should 
imagine  that  the  office,  for  a  lady,  would  be  somewhat 
unpleasant." 

"  So  it  is,"  lied  Dr.  Delmayne,  rushing  to  the  rescue; 
"  but  Mrs.  Peters  has  known  me  for  a  long  time.  Mrs. 
Peters  and  I  have  the  honor  of  being  very  old  friends. 
Mrs.  Peters,  I  flatter  myself,  was  induced  to  undertake 
the  present  case  more  through  the  mention  of  my  name 
than  through  any  other  persuasions  which  Mr.  Driscoll 
addressed  to  her." 

I  do  not  know  what  effect  this  ingenious  tissue  of 
falsehood  produced  upon  her  who  heard  it;  for  just 
then  there  came  a  moan  from  the  bed  where  Fuller  lay, 
and  since  that  moment,  all  through  the  rest  of  the  day 
and  on  through  half  the  night,  it  has  been  with  him  as 
with  one  who  walks  very  very  deep  into  the  Valley  of 
the  Shadow.  His  suffering  has  been  intense  ;  his  gasp- 
ings  for  breath  have  been  frightful  to  hear  and  see  ;  a 
fever  has  taken  possession  of  him  whose  hot  force  has 
turned  his  dead  silence  into  occasional  bursts  of  inco- 
herent disconnected  talk.  Edith  Everdell  staid  in  the 
room  through  nearly  all  of  it,  and  John  Driscoll  was 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  401 

there  also,  and  a  woman  whom  I  believe  Edith  Everdell 
calls  Flora — a  handsome  swart-skinned  brunette,  bad 
style  to  her  finger-tips — visited  the  room  once  or  twice 
and  shuddered  and  went  out  again.  The  white-mous- 
tached  doctor  came  once  in  the  afternoon  and  once  in 
the  evening.  As  for  Dr.  Delmayne,  if  ever  a  man  made 
war-to-the-knife  against  Death,  that  man  is  he.  I  tried 
to  appear  as  little  as  possible  like  a  neophyte  and  a 
bungler ;  perhaps  I  have  succeeded ;  perhaps  not. 
Edith  Everdell  was  the  last  to  leave  the  doctor  and  my- 
self alone  in  the  sick-room.  Fuller  was  much  quieter 
by  then — about  twelve  o'clock.  The  instant  she  had 
left,  Dr.  Delmayne  turned  toward  me. 

"  Go  to  bed,"  he  commanded. 

"  No,  doctor ;  I  could  not  sleep  if  I  did." 

"  Nonsense.  If  you  don't  go  I  shall  undress  before 
you." 

"  Undress?" 

"  Certainly.  Do  you  see  those  bed-clothes,  there 
beside  the  lounge  ?  I  had  them  brought  here  this  even- 
ing, whilst  you  were  too  scared  to  notice  anything  that 
went  on  a  yard  from  that  poor  fellow's  side.  I  intend 
to  sleep  there  on  the  lounge.  If  he's  worse,  (but  he 
isn't  going  to  be,  before  morning)  I  promise  to  call  you. 
Now  don't  look  distrustful,  and  don't  believe  that  I 
shall  go  to  sleep  and  not  hear  him  if  it's  necessary.  To- 
night isn't  the  first  time,  Mrs.  Peters,  that  I've  only 
slept  with  a  single  eye  and  a  single  ear.  So  please  go 
to  bed,  Mrs.  Peters,  without  further  pig-headedness  ; 
and  let  that  end  the  story." 

So  I  went  into  my  own  room,  and  somehow  felt  such 
confidence  in  this  man's  efficient  watchfulness  that  bod- 
ily exhaustion  asserted  itself  and  I  slept  tired  sleep  un- 
til quite  late  in  the  morning.  On  finding  out  the  hour 


402  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

**- 

I  was  spurred  into  a  most  guiltily  expeditious  toilette. 
The  doctor  was  seated  at  Fuller's  bedside  when  I  en- 
tered the  sick-room.  "There  is  a  little  change  for  the 
better,  perhaps"  he  admitted;  "but  only  perhaps;" 
answering  my  eager  question  with  evident  reluctance. 
Then  he  went  on  to  tell  me  that  the  patient  had  passed 
a  tolerably  quiet  night ;  restless  now  and  then,  but  on 
the  whole,  quiet.  After  that  I  was  ordered  to  ring  for 
breakfast.  We  have  apparently  conquered  in  the  matter 
of  Margaret's  visitations.  Breakfast  was  brought  up  by 
the  same  person  who  served  us  with  luncheon  and  din- 
ner yesterday  ;  a  tidy  harmless-looking  girl. 

Fuller  has  been  so  quiet,  and  has  seemed  to  need  so 
little  care  for  the  past  two  hours,  that  I  have  stolen  into 
my  own  room,  and  seated  where  I  can  see  everything 
that  passes  in  the  next  through  the  half-opened  door, 
have  written  these  lines  in  you,  Diary,  following  my 
queer  habit  (now  grown  a  very  second-nature)  of  telling 
you  every  important  thing  that  happens. 

Whilst  I  have  written  there  has  been  no  worse,  change 
in  Fuller's  condition,  and  Dr.  Delmayne  has  been  divid- 
ing his  attention  between  a  newspaper,  a  novel  and  the 
patient's  pulse.  I  suppose  that  John  Driscoll,  or  one  of 
the  other  two  doctors,  or  Edith  Everdell,  may  appear 
at  any  moment. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

|PRIL  ii. — Nearly  four  days  have  passed  since 
I  touched  these  pages.  And  days  of  such 
poignant  anxiety,  such  terrible  torturing  sus- 
pense !  A  very  little  while  after  I  last  ceased  from 
writing,  his  sufferings  came  with  what  seemed  sevenfold 
their  former  force.  There  was  a  slight  hemorrhage,  too, 
with  awful  danger  of  a  worse  one.  All  through  that 
day  I  simply  stood  at  the  bedside,  doing  whatever  the 
spirit  moved  me  to  do,  and  keeping  my  eyes  now  on 
Fuller's  face,  now  on  Dr.  Delmayne's.  I  scarcely  knew 
what  people  were  in  the  room,  for  hours  together. 
Once,  when  Edith  Everdell  drew  very  close  to  the  bed 
and  laid  her  hand  (her  warmly- white  hand,  tinged  as  I 
have  seen  the  petal-tips  of  certain  tea-roses)  on  Fuller's 
pillow,  very  close  to  his  head,  I  felt  a  chill  creep  slowly 
through  me  whilst  I  watched  her.  But  the  instant  her 
hand  was  withdrawn  I  forgot  her  presence,  thinking  only 
of  that  poor  racked  sufferer  and  hearing  in  my  ears 
again  and  again,  iterated  knellwise  :  "  He  is  dying  ;  he 
is  dying.  You  can't  save  him.  Nobody  can  save  him 
but  God  ;  and  God  will  not." 

It  was  toward  evening  of  this  same  day  that  a  most 
horrid  thing  happened.  He  had  been  uttering  strange 
guttural  incoherences  for  an  hour  or  more.  Dr.  Del- 


404  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

mayne  and  I  stood,  side  by  side,  very  near  him,  and  as 
I  watched  his  eyes  it  seemed  to  me  that  they  took  a 
glassier  glitter  with  every  new  moment.  John  Driscoll 
had  gone  away  for  a  little  while.  Edith  Everdell,  as  I 
had  a  vague  consciousness,  was  somewhere  in  the  room. 
Near  the  door  stood  that  Flora,  staring  at  me  with  her 
bold  black  bad  eyes,  as  she  is  fond  of  doing  whenever 
we  meet ;  I  wonder,  by  the  way,  what  makes  her  stare 
at  me  so. 

It  happened  that  I  was  nearer  to  Fuller  than  was  Dr. 
Delmayne,  at  the  time  the  horrid  thing  occurred.  I 
daresay  that  if  the  doctor  had  been  nearer  than  I,  his 
hand  might  have  been  caught  and  the  miserable  mistake 
made  regarding  him ;  for  Fuller  was  just  delirious 
enough  to  make  it. 

Instead  of  that  his  hot  hand  suddenly  seized  mine  and 
his  dull-shining  eyes  swept  my  face  for  a  moment,  wrhilst 
he  cried  out,  much  loudlier  and  distinctlier  than  he  had 
as  yet  spoken  anything  : 

"  Edith  !  Ah,  Edith,  this  is  you  at  last.  Where  have 
you  been  keeping  yourself?  "  Then  he  began  fondling 
my  hand  excitedly,  whilst  I  stood  rigid,  chilled,  ignor- 
ant how  to  act,  and  feeling  more  keenly  with  every 
second  the  dreadful  mockery  of  the  situation. 

Suddenly  Edith  Everdell  pushed  between  the  doctor 
and  myself,  and  so,  whilst  standing  close  at  my  side, 
leaned  down  a  little  above  Fuller.  At  the  same  time 
her  hand  made  a  rude  effort  to  separate  Fuller's  from 
my  own. 

But  tense  muscles  opposed  her.  I  held  his  hand  so 
tightly,  then,  that  she  tried  and  wholly  failed  even  to 
wrench  it  away.  And  presently  with  high-held  imperi- 
ous head  she  stood  glaring  at  me,  a  superb  picture  of 
ungoverned  anger. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  405 

"  How  dare  you  prevent  me  from  taking  Mr.  Dobell's 
hand,"  she  cried,  "  when  I  hear  him  call  me  by  name 
and  when  you  yourself  see  clearly  the  mistake  he  is 
making  ?  " 

I  met  her  glare  fearlessly  through  my  green  spectacles. 
I  knew  that  my  action  had  been  a  mere  piece  of  insanity 
as  far  as  prudence  went ;  but  there  had  seemed  some- 
thing so  maddening  in  the  thought  of  this  creature  coolly 
separating  those  hands  which  God  had  once  joined  to- 
gether, however  shamelessly  man  had  since  broken  them 
asunder,  that  were  a  greatly  worse  peril  than  discovery 
the  price  of  my  persistence,  I  should  still  have  made  my 
fingers  cling  with  the  same  stubborn  force  as  they  were 
clinging  now. 

And  as  for  discovery,  I  was  filled  with  such  a  mo- 
mentary recklessness  that  I  cared  not  a  jot  about  it,  and 
should  perhaps  have  even  courted  it,  but  for  Dr.  Del- 
mayne's  prompt  interference. 

"  Mrs.  Everdell,"  he  stated,  quietly  putting  himself 
between  us,  "if  you  place  the  least  reliance  on  my 
judgment,  please  understand  one  thing  :  this  room  must 
be  kept  free  from  loud  talking  or  "  (lowering  his  voice 
in  solemnest  whisper)  "  there  is  no  chance  whatever  for 
my  patient's  life." 

Her  tones  were  a  trifle  lessened,  after  that,  but  her 
anger  was  evidently  unaltered.  "  I  consider  Mrs. 
Peters'  behavior  most  impertinent.  She  refused  to  let 
me  take  Mr.  Dobell's  hand.  I  insist  that  you  interfere 
to  some  purpose,  doctor,  if  you  must  interfere  at  all." 

"  She  has  not  refused,"  contradicted  the  doctor.  "  It 
is  not  so,  Mrs.  Peters,  is  it  ?  " 

Prudence  was  pulling  me  by  the  sleeve,  now.  "  Not 
at  all,"  I  lied,  making  the  words  come  through  my  half- 
choked  throat.  Then  I  got  my  hand  free  from  Fuller's 


4o6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LlNEN. 

and  drew  back  a  little  from  the  bed.  "  I  hesitated  to 
let  Mrs.  Everdell  take  his  hand  because  I  thought  it 
would  be  best  to  humor  him  in  the  mistake." 

"  Thoughtful  creature  !  "  murmured  the  doctor,  with 
a  whole  heartful  of  admiration  in  his  words.  "  I  knew 
there  was  some  such  discreet  reason  for  what  you  did." 

At  this  there  came  a  voice  from  the  further  end  of  the 
room.  Flora,  the  woman  who  diverts  herself  by  that 
chronic  stare  at  me,  spoke  in  hard  clear  semitone. 

"  Hesitate  is  a  queer  word  to  use,  I  think.  It  seemed 
to  me  much  more  as  if  she  just  gripped  his  hand  with 
all  her  might  and  wouldn't  let  you  touch  it." 

"  Which  is  the  exact  truth,"  broke  forth  Edith  Ever- 
dell, turning  from  her  friend  to  re-level  kindled  eyes 
upon  me. 

What  more  she  said  I  did  not  hear  ;  for  just  then  there 
came  upon  Fuller  one  of  his  sudden  horrible  attacks  of 
gasping.  The  attack  lasted  a  good  half-hour.  When  I 
cared  to  notice  whether  those  two  women  had  left  the 
room  or  no,  I  looked  about  me  and  found  that  only 
Edith  Everdell  remained.  A  little  while  afterward  she 
too  departed. 

"  You  think  that  I  behaved  like  a  fool,"  I  whispered 
to  Dr.  Delmayne.  "  I  see  it  in  your  face." 

"  Never  mind  what  you  see  in  my  face,"  he  muttered, 
oracularly.  "  Perhaps  it  tells  the  truth  and  perhaps  it 
doesn't.  Anyhow,  keep  your  wits  under  better  control, 
next  time.  By  the  bye,  let  me  feel  your  pulse  ;  "  (sud- 
denly coming  close  beside  me.)  "  Steadier  than  I  ex- 
pected to  find  it."  The  acute  little  eyes  were  ransacking 
my  face.  "  Does  it  often  strike  you  that  you're  doing 
about  the  queerest  thing  that  was  ever  done  by  any  fe- 
male outside  of  two  novel-covers  ?  " 

"Why  don't  you  call  it  wild  and  crazy,  Dr.    Del- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  407 

mayne  ? — as  it  is  !  "  Then  I  made  a  little  dreary  gest- 
ure toward  the  bed.  "  If  he  only  cared  for  me,  you 
know,  there  would  be  some  reason  for  this  masquerade. 
But  he  even  thinks  of  her  whilst  he  is  delirious." 

Two  flashes  of  fire  left  the  wee  eyes.  "  Don't  blow 
your  own  trumpet,"  he  growled,  with  right  puzzling 
ambiguity. 

"  What  do  you  mean,  doctor  ?  " 

He  wheeled  away  on  one  heel.  "  Stuff  and  non- 
sense !  You  know  very  well  that  if  he  were  a  bit  soft 
about  you  the  whole  matter  of  your  coming  here  would 
wear  different  colors.  You  know  this,  and  what's  more, 
you  ought  to  know  that  I  know  you  know  it.  Bad 
move,  if  you  want  sympathy,  Mrs.  Peters ;  very  bad 
move  indeed." 

So  ran  his  brutal  words,  and  in  tones  rasping,  corn- 
passionless.  But  I  never  thought,  somehow,  of  feeling 
hurt  or  angry  because  of  them.  I  am  beginning  to  get 
so  used  to  his  grim  acrid  style  that  I  verily  believe  a 
kindly-spoken  sentence  from  him  would  not  go  far  short 
of  wounding  me. 

John  Driscoll  made  his  appearance,  a  little  later.  "  I 
wanted  to  ask  you  about  mamma,"  I  took  this  chance 
of  whispering  ;  for  neither  Edith  Everdell  nor  her  friend 
with  the  stare  were  present.  "  You  have  told  her  where 
1  am  ?  " 

"Yes." 

''Was  the  result  very  awful  ?  " 

"  Rather,"  he  smiled.  "But  her  manner  changed, 
ultimately,  to  a  kind  of  magnificent  despairing  submis- 
sion. Moreover,  you  must  be  sure  that  I  put  everything 
in  the  least  ugly  colors  possible.  For  example,  she 
merely  thinks  that  you  are  in  some  place  where  an  oc- 
casional meeting  with  Mrs.  Everdell  is  a  likelihood. 


408  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LTNEN. 

She  does  not  know  that  you  are  here  in  the  woman's 
own  house." 

"  Well,  for  my  part,"  I  shoulder-shrugged,  "  it  mat- 
ters very  little  to  me  what  you  told  her,  so  long  as  you 
let  her  understand  that  I  am  personally  safe."  Then, 
with  the  bitterest  of  bitter  smiles  I  progressed:  "  I 
know  it's  bad  taste  to  wash  one's  soiled  linen  even  be- 
fore so  little  of  a  stranger  as  you  are  ;  but  I  can't  help 
saying,  John  Driscoll,  that  it  is  she  who  has  brought 
me  to  all  this.  It  was  she  who  first  led  me  with  blinded 
eyes  into  all  my  present  misery.  Do  you  understand 
what  I  mean  ?  If  you  don't,  I  mean  that  but  for  her 
my  marriage — " 

"  Yes,  yes,"  he  broke  in;  "I  do  understand.  We 
had  best  not  speak  of  this.  Keep  the  old  wounds 
closed  if  you  can  ;  it  is  always  good  wisdom  not  to  open 
them." 

"  Right,"  I  nodded,  after  a  little  silence.  "  Only, 
they  are  not  such  very  old  wounds,  after  all.  O  my 
God  !  to  think,  John  Driscoll,  that  I  have  not  been  his 
wife  six  months,  and  am  seeing  what  I  see  now,  suffer- 
ing what  I  now  suffer  !  " 

"  It  is  hard,"  he  answered  ;  and  answered  no  more  ; 
and  I  knew  from  his  words  that  he  thought  my  own 
worse  than  futile,  worse  than  waste  of  breath.  So  I 
kept  silent  and  our  brief  talk  ended  thus. 

That  night  was  a  dreadful  night  for  Fuller.  I  would 
not  leave  him  until  nearly  morning,  though  once  Dr. 
Delmayne  turned  right  savage  in  his  kindly  cruel  desire 
to  force  me  from  the  room.  And  all  through  the  next 
day  he  was  in  deadliest  peril  of  death,  and  a  little  while 
after  dark  so  intense  an  exhaustion  came  upon  him  that 
I  had  not  the  dimmest  hope  he  would  ever  wake  from 
it ;  but  the  frail  dwindled  life  flickered  and  flickered 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


409 


flamewise,  just  burning  on  and  no  more,  just  not  going 
completely  out. 

Before  noon  of  the  next  day  strength  had  somehow 
come  to  him,  and  a  vague  tinge  of  naturalness  touched 
his  fever-ravaged  face,  and  I  began  to  hope.  He  was 
struggling  to  be  better.  Perhaps  he  would  not  fail. 

And  that  night  I  felt  trustful  that  he  would  not  fail. 
"You  must  go  to  bed  now,"  Dr.  Delmayne  com- 
manded, at  about  midnight.  "You  haven't  the  slim- 
mest excuse,  Mrs.  Peters,  for  sitting  up.  Do  you  quite 
comprehend  ?  Not  the  slimmest  excuselet ;  so  that  ends 
the  story." 

I  caught  the  doctor's  hand,  whilst  he  looked  at  me  as 
though  I  were  committing  larceny  upon  him.  "Tell 
me  what  you  really  mean,  doctor.  Is  it  that  he  is 
going  to  live?" 

"Tut,  tut, .Mrs.  Peters.  We  are  none  of  us  going 
to  live.  That  is,  we  are  all  of  us  going  to  die,  some 
day  or  other." 

"Dr.  Delmayne,  if  you  know  how  to  get  me  out  of 
this  room  by  telling  me  the  truth,  and  don't  do  it, 
you're  not  very  politic,  certainly.  I  am  sure  you  will 
not  tell  me  a  falsehood." 

Whereat  he  chuckled  an  enormous  chuckle,  as  at 
some  enormous  joke.  "  Upon  my  word,  you're  wise  in 
your  generation,  my  good  Mrs.  Peters — a  perfect  Solo- 
moness,  to  put  a  famous  proper  noun  in  a  grammatical 
petticoat.  Well,  I  own  you've  made  my  professional 
reticence  knock  under.  He's  going  to  get  well,  to  the 
best  of  my  knowledge.  You  understand,  ma'am? — 
My  Knowledge  !  which  isn't  to  be  sneezed  at,  Mrs. 
Peters,  except  by  the  flippant  nostrils  of  quacks  and 
charlatans.  Now  will  you  go  to  bed  and  end  the 
story?" 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

I  awoke  this  morning  to  find  every  sign  of  his  recov- 
ery still  most  hopeful.  He  has  had  a  good  brief  ter- 
rible fight  with  the  Destroyer,  and  has  come  off  wounded 
sorely  but  still  victor.  He  will  live.  How  much  and 
how  little  those  words  mean  to  me  !  Through  all  his 
after-life  he  will  never  know  whose  hands  helped  him  to 
live ; — and  by  the  bye,  Dr.  Delmayne  whispered  to  me 
yesterday  that '  he  didn't  wish  to  flatter,  but  he  had  met 
one  or  two  clumsier  nurses  than  I,  and  more  grossly 
ignorant.'  He  meant  that  I  was  surprising  him,  every 
little  while,  with  my  knowledge  and  skill.  I  was  right 
in  my  prophecy  to  John  Driscoll :  I  have  been  inspired. 
Or  is  it  only  that  the  doctor  was  surprised  to  see  me 
capable  of  doing  anything  useful  ? — me  who  am  of  a 
class  that  usually  bring  up  their  women  to  be  little  ex- 
cept fair  dancers  and  good  flirts,  with  a  languid  taste 
for  fancy-work,  and  whole  headfuls  of  unenlightenment 
about  darning  a  stocking  or  sweeping  a  room  or  cook- 
ing a  potato. 

I  think  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  Edith  Ever- 
dell  has  gotten  heartily  to  dislike  Mrs.  Peters.  Whether 
she  suspects  her  to  be  any  employee  of  Helen  Dobell's 
or  not;  whether  or  not  she  vaguely  distrusts  her  ap- 
pearance ;  whether  or  not  she  is  convinced  that  her  dis- 
guise is  a  disguise — all  this  Mrs.  Peters  cannot  and  does 
not  care  to  determine.  Let  her  suspect  or  not  suspect, 
just  as  she  chooses.  I  shall  of  course  take  every  pre- 
caution against  discovery.  And,  by  the  bye,  this 
reminds  me  that  I  had  forgotten,  until  a  day  or  two 
ago,  about  all  my  clothes  bearing  the  initials  H.  D.  -I 
have  consequently  locked  up  everything  that  might  lead 
to  detection,  in  the  commodious  closet  my  room  pos- 
sesses. But  possibly  those  pig-eyes  of  Margaret  (who 
arranges  my  room  every  morning,  though  she  has  been 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  41  T 

permanently  exiled  from  Fuller's)  already  have  ferreted 
out  the  initials.  And  this  may  account  for  what  quiet 
.  hostility  I  still  see  (when  I  have  taken  pains  to  notice 
it)  remaining  in  Edith  Everdell's  manner  toward  me. 
It  possibly  underlies,  too,  the  lynxlike  vigilance  of  that 
Flora.  Well,  let  them  both  rack  their  brains  with  mis- 
givings about  me.  My  one  aim  is  to  remain  in  the 
house  with  Fuller  until  he  is  well  enough  to  need  no 
further  charge.  Having  this  end  in  view,  I  must  sim- 
ply mail  myself  with  self-control,  and  shun  all  such  out- 
bursts of  personal  feeling  as  that  which  happened  the 
other  day.  It  matters  nothing  to  me  what  Edith  Ever- 
dell  or  her  friend  thinks,  so  long  as  they  both  doubt 
and  distrust  at  a  respectful  distance. 

Now  and  then  I  have  spasms  of  hatred  seize  hold  of 
me  when  she  is  near.  I  suppose  her  presence  in  the 
chamber  will  be  much  harder  to  bear  after  Fuller's  state 
begins  more  clearly  to  mend.  Then  she  will  have  my 
attention,  so  to  speak,  and  the  nearness  of  her  must  per- 
petually irritate  me.  Already  I  begin  to  feel  what  truth 
Melville  Delano  and  John  Driscoll  spoke :  the  thought 
of  Fuller's  death  has  never  once  touched  her  heart, 
as  one  could  see  plainly  on  her  face.  His  death  means 
to  her  the  ceasing  of  a  certain  prosperous  influx — the 
drawing  of  certain  purse-strings ;  but  no  more  than 
this.  Seldom  as  I  have  noticed  her,  I  have  seen  enough 
to  make  me  discern  how  horrible  an  opposite  from  mine 
is  the  interest  she  feels  in  his  living.  Her  face  has 
mostly  worn  a  bothered  impatient  look  when  I  have 
watched  it  bending  over  his  bed ;  the  look  of  annoy- 
ance, dissatisfaction,  disgust,  but  never  of  sorrow,  so- 
licitude, sympathy. 

If  she  were  an  ignorant  untrained  creature,  with  little 
knowledge  except  the  knowledge  that  she  is  beautiful 


412 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


as  a  goddess  and  that  men,  for  the  most  part,  are  sad 
fools  where  it  concerns  the  flinging  away  of  money  on 
their  own  pleasures — then  I  should  only  despise  her, 
perhaps,  and  forgive  whilst  I  did  so.  But  it  is  her 
training  and  her  culture  that  madden  me  when  I  reflect 
upon  them,  now.  The  thick  rind  of  thoroughbred  ease 
which  hides  the  rottenness  within,  makes  her  such  a 
loathsome  deception.  If  she  walks  across  the  floor  it  is 
a  delusion  ;  if  she  speaks,  the  sound  of  her  voice  is 
treachery.  She  is  a  living  lie.  And  to  think  that  Ful- 
ler believes  her !  Should  he  get  well,  I  feel  that  I  shall 
never  rest  until  I  have  found  some  means  of  stripping 
off  the  creature's  audacious  disguise  and  of  showing  him 
the 

*'  Serpent-heart,  hid  with  a  flow'ring  face." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

|PRIL  15.— Through  the  past  four  days  Fuller 
has  been  getting  slowly  better.  The  fever  has 
now  quite  left  him.  He  is  so  weak  that  he  can 
hardly  lift  an  arm,  however,  and  yet  he  is  disturbed  by 
the  slightest  sound.  Dr.  Delmayne  has  forbidden  any- 
body from  crossing  the  threshold  of  his  room.  I  don't 
think  he  would  hesitate  an  instant  to  use  forcible  means 
if  Edith  Everdell  should  enter  and  refuse  to  depart. 
But  his  proclamation  has  gone  forth  through  the  house- 
hold, and  (excepting,  of  course,  the  servant  who  brings 
us  our  meals)  they  all  seem  to  recognize  the  good  policy 
of  obeying  it. 

Last  evening,  however,  between  about  nine  and  ten 
o'clock,  a  sound  of  laughter  began  below  stairs,  reach- 
ing us  at  intervals  that  momently  grew  shorter  apart. 
It  was  a  muffled  sound  because  of  the  closed  doors  in- 
tervening ;  but  it  had  not  been  thrice  repeated  before 
Fuller  showed  signs  of  nervous  wakefulness.  Dr. 
Delmayne  and  I  looked  at  one  another.  Presently 
there  came  a  long  loud  peal ;  then  silence ;  then  a 
longer  and  a  louder  peal.  I  rose,  just  as  Fuller  com- 
menced rolling  his  head  from  side  to  side  with  a  faint 
plaintive  childish  whimper. 

Dr.  Delmayne  wore  so  comfortable  an  appearance 
that  I  determined  to  spare  him  the  trouble  of  going 


414 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


downstairs  and  stopping  the  laughter.  I  would  go  my- 
self. Of  course  the  doctor  would  prevent  me  from  go- 
ing if  he  knew  my  real  purpose.  But  I  slipped  into  my 
own  chamber  and  so  deceived  him  as  to  whither  I  was 
bound:  then,  by  the  door  communicating  with  the 
outer  hall,  I  hurried  forth  and  made  my  way  down- 
stairs. , 

Several  fresh  peals  of  mirth  guided  me  toward  the 
room  whence  these  sounds  were  issuing.  It  was  the 
front  parlor.  The  door  was  closed,  but  within  there 
was  noise  of  high  talking  and  the  lower  laughter  of  wo- 
men mixed  with  men's  heavier-toned  laughter.  Some- 
body seemed  to  have  said  something  extravagantly 
funny,  just  as  I  reached  the  door,  to  judge  from  the 
applausive  clamor  that  was  prevailing.  I  shuddered  to 
consider  the  effect  upon  Fuller  of  this  reckless  uproar, 
and  felt  glad  that  I  had  not  waited  to  ring  for  a  servant, 
had  not  even  waited  to  tell  Dr.  Delmayne  where  I  was 
going.  And  a  little  of  the  shudder,  let  me  own,  was 
given  to  the  thought  of  how  heartless  was  this  evident 
merrymaking  at  such  a  time. 

Boldly  enough  I  knocked,  and  with  some  loudness, 
too,  because  sure  that  I  would  not  be  heard  unless  I 
knocked  loudly.  In  an  instant  the  clamor  hushed  itself 
to  dead  silence.  And  in  an  instant  later  the  door  was 
opened  by  that  woman  Flora. 

She  merely  made  a  small  aperture,  thrusting  her  head 
through  this.  "  What  is  it?  "she  asked,  in  sharp 
tones.  Then,  discovering  me,  where  I  had  drawn  well 
beyond  the  possibility  of  being  seen  by  those  within 
the  parlor  if  the  door  were  opened  widely,  "  Oh,"  she 
murmured;  "  Mrs.  Peters?" 

"  Yes,"  I  murmured  back,  "  Mrs.  Peters." 

By  this  time  she  had  corne  out  into  the  hall,  shutting 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

the  door  behind  her.  She  was  gaudily  dressed,  with  a 
certain  theatrical  magnificence  in  her  costume's  red 
satin  complexities.  Her  cheeks  were  flushed  to  richest 
damask  and  her  eyes  burned  brilliantly.  Her  bold 
bright-garmented  beauty  made  a  very  gorgeous  appa- 
rition. She  silenced  me  for  a  moment  with  unwilling 
admiration  ;  long  enough,  indeed,  for  her  to  take  the 
initiative  in  speaking,  and  to  speak  with  a  sort  of  sur- 
prised harshness. 

"Well;  what  is  it?" 

"  I  have  come  downstairs  to  ask  that  you  will  cease 
your  loud  laughing  at  once.  It  greatly  disturbs 
Mr. " 

' '  Hush,"  she  broke  in,  with  hurried  whisper.  ' '  Don't 
you  know  that  you  shouldn't  mention  his  name  like 
that  ?  "  Then  a  sudden  ugly  bravado  seemed  to  pos- 
sess her  entire  manner.  "  Are  you  sure  that  it  dis- 
turbs him  ?  Or  did  you  come  downstairs  of  your  own 
accord,  just  to  pry  ?  " 

This  was  irritating,  of  course,  but  it  somehow  didn't 
irritate  me  an  iota.  "  Judge  of  that  as  you  please," 
I  made  placid  answer  ;  "  only  I  beg  of  you  and  your 
friends  not  to  let  yourselves  be  heard  again  as  you  were 
heard  just  now." 

I  was  moving  away — had  indeed  taken  several  steps 
toward  the  staircase,  when  the  door  suddenly  opened 
again.  This  time  Edith  Everdell  appeared  in  the  hall. 
Ah  me  !  how  Flora's  glories  paled  before  this  new 
arrival !  She  was  dressed  in  light  soft  blue,  her  marvel- 
lous charms  all  more  dazzling  than  I  have  ever  yet  seen 
them.  Even  to  me,  who  have  gotten  to  loathe  her 
as  I  would  loathe  a  scorpion,  her  beauty  was  a  perfect 
intoxication. 

Flora  gave  her  no  time  to  speak.     "  Mrs.  Peters  has 


41 6  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

come  down  to  tell  us  that  we  must  make  less  noise," 
she  stated,  an  insolent  drawl  being  evident  even  through 
her  whisper. 

I  had  reached  the  first  step  of  the  staircase,  having 
neither  the  wish  nor  the  willingness  to  stand  parleying 
with  these  creatures,  when  Edith  Everdell's  voice 
stopped  me. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say,  Mrs.  Peters,  that  we  have  been 
heard  upstairs  there,  with  all  the  doors  closed  ?  " 

"  Distinctly,"  I  replied.  Then  I  took  another  step 
upward.  "  I  have  not  made  my  request  in  quite  such 
rude  terms  as  it  has  been  communicated  to  you  by 
that — "  I  was  going  to  finish  with  "  lady."  I  had 
every  pacific  intention  of  finishing  with  ( '  lady. "  I  don't 
know  why  I  didn't,  unless  because  the  word  abruptly 
took  me  unawares,  as  it  were,  and  refused  to  let  itself 
be  spoken.  What  I  did  finish  with  was  "  person." 

Flora  straightway  gave  her  head  an  exaggerated  toss, 
"  Oh,  indeed,"  she  satirized,  leaving  off  her  whisper 
and  curling  her  lips'  full  crimson  with  a  beautiful  vulgar- 
ity of  arrogance.  "I'm  '  that  person,'  am  I  ?  Why 
didn't  you  say  '  woman  '  or  '  creature  '  or  something 
of  that  more  contemptuous  style  ?  It  would  quite  have 
suited  all  your  other  confounded  airs."  Then  she 
came  forward  five  or  six  steps,  with  reddening  cheeks 
and  brightening  eyes,  each  fresh  sentence  seeming 
to  have  inflamed  her  temper  more  violently,  on  the 
principle,  I  suppose,  that  certain  bonfires  of  passion 
furnish  their  own  fuel.  "  It  makes  me  mad  just  to  look 
at  you  ;  it  always  has  made  me.  Do  you  want  to 
know  why  ?  Because  you  have  no  business  here,  and 
Mrs.  Everdell  was  a  fool  to  have  you  come.  John 
Driscoll  bullied  her  into  it  and  she  let  herself  be 
bullied  ;  that's  just  how  it  was.  You're  a  spy  ;  I  know 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

you  are.  His  wife  got  you  here,  or  some  of  his  friends 
that  are  dead  against  Edith.  You  take  notes  of  every- 
thing you  see,  and  you  mean  to  make  mischief  when 
you  go  out  of  this  house  :  I'll  bet  my  life  that's  the 
truth." 

Her  tones  were  far  above  a  whisper,  though  in  spite 
of  their  malicious  energy,  I  doubt  if  they  had  strength 
to  reach  the  occupants  of  the  parlor.  She  had  gone 
only  a  brief  distance  in  her  tirade  before  I  became 
satisfied  on  one  point :  wine  was  making  a  fever  in  the 
woman's  blood  and  giving  her  boldness  to  speak  out 
her  venomous  ideas.  It  was  not  exact  inebriety,  but 
rather  an  abandoned  first  cousin  to  it,  of  the  brightened 
eye  and  the  heated  head  and  the  loosened  tongue. 

More  than  once  after  Flora  had  begun  the  attack, 
Edith  Everdell  looked  on  the  point  of  interrupting  her. 
But  as  the  speaker  progressed,  a  kind  of  reckless 
sympathy  seemed  to  draw  her  listener's  mind  away 
from  the  fact  that  Flora  was  speaking  at  all,  and  only 
to  leave  her  aware  that  words  were  being  uttered.  And 
in  the  end  she  broke  in  with  so  mild  a  reprimand  that 
the  tones  even  surpassed  the  sentence  itself  in  leniency. 

"  Hush,  Flora  ;  be  careful  what  you  say." 

I  was  fully  mistress  of  my  temper  until  that  torment- 
ing stroke  of  left-handed  fellow-feeling ;  then  I  forgot 
prudence,  and  more  than  this,  forgot  fear.  Quite 
ignoring  Flora,  I  turned  upon  Edith  Everdell  and  burst 
forth  : 

"These  uncalled-for  statements  I  don't  choose  to 
trouble  myself  by  denying.  But  I  can't  help  saying 
one  thing,  and  that  is :  your  forcing  me  to  come  down 
here  at  all  and  stop  your  outrageous  clamor,  when  you 
well  knew  the  condition  of  matters  upstairs,  has  struck 
me  as  thoroughly  shameful.  And  whether  you  like  to 
18* 


41 8  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

hear  it  or  not,  I  frankly  tell  you  that  your  want  of  com- 
mon respect  or  decency  is,  beyond  any  doubt,  shock- 
ing at  a  time  like  the  present." 

I  spoke  loudly  enough,  perhaps,  for  the  inmates  of 
the  parlor  to  have  heard  me  if  they  had  been  listening  ; 
and  whilst  I  spoke  I  saw  Edith  Everdell's  face  pale 
noticeably  either  from  anger  or  fear  lest  I  should  be 
heard — from  the  latter,  it  is  right  probable.  Almost  as 
the  final  word  was  leaving  my  lips,  I  turned  with  the 
purpose  of  hastening  upstairs  at  full  speed.  But  even 
whilst  I  did  this,  Flora  sprang  toward  the  banisters,  and 
reaching  over  them  a  quick  savage  hand,  caught  me  by 
the  arm.  When  my  horrified  eyes  met  her  face,  I  saw 
something  there  that  was  closely  like  absolute  fury. 

"  Don't  have  "her  in  the  house  an  hour  longer, 
Edith,"  she  shouted,  her  voice  raised  to  a  right  ireful 
key  and  her  grip  tightened  about  my  arm  with  a  man's 
own  force.  "  Send  her  away  at  once  ;  she's  a  stuck-up 
saucy  thing,  even  if  she  isn't  a  spy.  Make  her  go, 
whether  it  pleases  John  Driscoll  or  not.  How  is  it  his 
business,  anyhow,  who  you  choose  to  have  in  your 
own  house  ?  Make  her  go  straight  off,  or  you'll  feel 
sorry,  before  long,  that  you  did  not  take  my  advice." 

By  this  time  I  had  gotten  enough  over  my  amaze- 
ment and  terror  to  begin  a  vigorous  struggle  with  the 
horrid  wine-excited  creature.  But  her  strength  far  ex- 
ceeded mine,  and  my  effort  to  break  loose  wrung  a  cry 
from  me,  as  its  result  only  proved  how  much  more 
firmly  her  clutch  could  tighten  about  my  arm.  The  cry 
was  sharp  and  keen-toned,  though  hardly  enough  of 
either  for  Dr.  Delmayne  to  hear  it  upstairs.  An  instant 
after  it  was  uttered  I  saw  Edith  Everdell  seize  the 
woman's  hand  and  drag  it  from  my  arm  with  a  sudden 
wrenching  jerk,  at  the  same  time  calling  out : 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Flora  !  Flora  !     Behave  yourself !  " 

And  at  the  same  time,  also,  the  parlor-door  was  thrown 
open,  and  whilst  several  men's  faces  dawned  momen- 
tarily upon  my  bewilderment,  I  gathered  my  skirts  to- 
gether and  rushed  with  all  attainable  fleetness  upstairs. 
Straight  on  I  sped,  never  pausing  nor  looking  behind 
me  till  I  had  reached  the  door  of  my  own  room.  Enter- 
ing, I  locked  this  door  and  then  sat  down  for  a  little 
while,  resolved  that  I  would  quite  recover  my  calmness 
before  telling  Dr.  Delmayne  the  whole  adventure. 

But  the  calmer  I  grew  the  less  inclined  I  felt  toward 
telling  him  anything.  He  had  evidently  not  heard  my 
rapid  entrance  into  my  own  room.  How  could  I  be 
sure  that,  on  receiving  any  such  confidence,  his  pro- 
tectorship would  not  assume  a  most  aggressive  form  of 
reprimand,  making  me  more  an  object  of  spiteful  suspi- 
cion than  I  seemed  already  to  have  become  ?  No  ;  I 
decided  not  to  tell  the  doctor  a  syllable  of  what  had  just 
occurred.  Only  John  Driscoll  should  hear  it  all,  when 
he  came  the  next  .day. 

And  so- 1  Avent  into  the  sick-chamber,  a  little  later, 
and  found  the  doctor  dozing  over  his  novel,  though  he 
roused  himself  at  the  first  rustle  of  my  garments  and 
favored  me  with  the  statement  that  those  people  down- 
stairs had  luckily  stopped  their  abominable  revelries  ; 
and  that  they  had  stopped  just  in  time,  by  the  bye,  to 
prevent  a  personal  visit  from  himself.  "  I  was  on  the 
point,  Mrs.  Peters,  of  going  down  there  and  requesting, 
with  some  slight  absence  of  ceremony,  that  they  would 
immediately  end  the  story." 

1  Oh,  if  I  had  only  waited  and  let  you  go,'  was  my 
mental  murmur,  whilst  I  felt  my  aching  arm  where 
the.  effect  of  that  bacchante's  amazonian  fingers  were 
giving  me  no  vague  reminder  of  her  brutal  assault. 


420  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

That  night  (which  was  last  night,  by  the  bye)  Fuller 
passed  so  placidly  that  early  on  the  following  morning 
Dr.  Delmayne  told  me  his  services  as  resident  physician 
were  no  longer  needed. 

"  You  mean  that  you  are  going  away  ?  "  I  faltered. 

"  I  mean,  Mrs.  Peters,  that  I  have  a  wife  who  con- 
siders herself  an  outraged  woman  and  who  has  already 
taken  five  or  six  opportunities  of  telling  me  so  ; — several 
times  by  letter,  several  times  during  my  brief  trips 
home."  Then  he  caught  my  hand  with  a  kind  of  gentle 
suddenness,  the  action  being  uncharacteristic  enough 
almost  to  be  laughable  as  well,  'whilst  his  voice  softened 
from  its  usual  gruff  little  whisper,  and  became,  just  for 
one  fleet  moment,  all  rich-cadenced  as  with  ineffable 
sympathy.  "  Don't  feel  nervous  about  my  going.  I'll 
stop  in  three  or  four  times  a  day,  and  make  big  visits  at 
that.  Remember,  my  dear  Mrs.  Peters,  that  the  worst 
of  your  trouble  is  over." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  of  it,  doctor." 

But  I  did  not  explain  the  ambiguity  of  those  words, 
nor  did  he  ask  for  an  explanation  ;  perhaps  he  put  his 
own  construction  upon  them  and  believed  that  I  was 
referring  to  all  my  future  ;  and  perhaps  I  was,  more 
than  half. 

When  John  Driscoll  came,  this  morning,  I  told  him 
everything  that  had  happened  last  night.  His  face 
seemed  to  grow  solemner  and  severer  whilst  I  progressed 
in  my  tale.  At  length  he  broke  forth,  with  strong  grave 
appeal  stamped  on  every  feature  : 

"  Let  me  get  you  away  from  here  at  once.  Fuller  is 
better,  now,  and — " 

"  Needs  the  most  careful  of  nursing,"  I  finished,  with 
a  dim  firm  smile.  "  I  have  grown  erudite  in  nursing- 
matters,  by  this,  and  am  a  trifle  vain  of  my  powers,  to 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


421 


tell  entire  truth.  I  don't  think  anyone  could  bring 
Fuller  through  quite  so  nicely  as  myself,  just  now, 
though  this  may  all  be  hallucination.  There  is  only 
one  inducement  for  me  to  take  your  advice." 

"  And  pray,  what  is  that?  "  he  wanted  quite  eagerly 
to  know. 

"  My  green  spectacles.  I  hate  them  so.  I  am  never 
free  from  a  deep  desire  to  tear  them  off.  Riddance 
from  them  would  be  a  right  blessed  emancipation,  I 
assure  you." 

He  made  a  great  shoulder-shrug  and  walked  away 
from  the  window,  where  we  had  been  standing  together 
for  fully  fifteen  minutes  past. 

"  And  you  really  think  there  is  a  marked  change  for 
the  better  going  on  all  the  time  ?  "  presently  I  heard 
him  murmur  to  Dr.  Delmayne. 

"No  doubt  of  it,"  stated  the  doctor.  "And  he's 
going  to  have  the  best  nursing  in  all  Christendom; — 
none  of  your  hired  kind,  that  does  what  it  does  like  an 
automaton,  and  wouldn't  much  care  whether  the  pa- 
tient lived  or  died,  provided  the  pay  was  poorer  than 
usual  or  a  little  less  sure.  None  of  that  stuff,  sir  ;  but 
he's  going  to  have  instead  (undeserving  dog  that  he  is  !) 
a  woman  who  would  die  two  deaths,  I  solemnly  be- 
lieve, to  gain  for  him  this  one  life  he  has  come  so  near 
losing.  There's  the  kind  of  nurse  that's  a  prize  for  us 
doctors  when  we  can  find  her.  Nothing  makes  a  Flor- 
ence Nightingale  quite  so  quickly  as  a  little  of  the  gen- 
uine old-fashioned  True  Love — the  sort  that 

"  The  more  thou  dam'st  it  up,  the  more  it  burns." 

And  by  the  bye,  it's  about  the  only  good  use  which 
that  disgusting  little  urchin  with  the  arrows  was  ever 
put  to  ;  ain't  I  more  than  half  right  ?  Well,  out  of 


422 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


that  woman's  weakness  there  has  come  strength,  and 
she  means  to  carry  him  through,  D.V. — (free  interpre- 
tation :  '  Delmayne  willing'.)  Yes,  he's  going  to  get 
over  it,  John  ;  and  that  ends  the  story." 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

[PRIL  22. — I  have  been  so  constantly  employed 
in  Fuller's  room  since  Dr.  Delmayne's  residence 
here  ceased,  that  I  have  had  slight  time,  Diary, 
for  accounts  of  how  the  days  pass.  Most  eventlessly, 
at  length  let  me  chronicle.  Fuller  is  well  enough  to  be 
propped  up  in  bed,  now  and  then,  but  as  yet  the  doc- 
tor positively  forbids  that  he  shall  see  anyone  besides 
John  Driscoll  and — not  myself ;  Mrs.  Peters. 

I  think  he  has  grown  to  place  much  reliance  upon 
me,  though  he  very  rarely  offers  me  a  remark.  Some- 
times he  seems  for  hours  in  profound  thought,  having 
wide-open  eyes  and  staring  ceilingward.  Yesterday  he 
suddenly  left  off  this  species  of  behavior  and  looked  at 
me  with  more  noticing  scrutiny  than  he  had  yet  ap- 
proached toward  showing. 

"You're  my  nurse,  are  you  not?"  He  asked  the 
question  with  an  abruptness  that  was  not  ungentle, 
somehow. 

"  Yes,"  I  made  answer. 

"  What  is  your  name  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Peters."  Every  new  syllable  that  I  pro- 
nounced gave  me  fresh  fear  lest  he  might  recognize  my 
voice,  disguised  though  it  was  to  the  uttermost  limit  of 
its  owner's  skill. 


424  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Just  the  shadow  of  a  smile  touched  his  white  lips. 
"  Why  are  you  not  a  man  ?  You  ought  to  be  a  man." 

"They  think  me  better  than  most  man-nurses,"  I 
returned,  growing  bolder  about  my  voice  as  its  disguise 
seemed  more  trustworthy. 

"You  talk  something  like  a  man,  with  that  deep 
voice  of  yours,"  he  astonished  me  by  murmuring,  as 
though  in  a  sort  of  soliloquy.  "  I  suppose  you  are  one 
of  these  manish  females  ;  but  you  don't  look  so.  Am 
I  very  sick  now  ?  " 

"  Not  very  ;  but  you  will  have  to  be  in  bed  a  long 
time  yet.  And  the  doctor  has  told  me  that  if  you  be- 
gan to  talk  I  must  try  and  prevent  you  from  saying 
much." 

"  He  told  you  that,  did  he  ?  Well,  the  doctor  is  to 
be  obeyed,  I  suppose."  And  a  little  later  he  fell  asleep 
and  slept  more  exhaustedly,  I  fancied,  just  because  of 
having  spoken  and  heard  these  few  sentences. 

I  have  had  to  send  home  by  John  Driscoll  for  some 
more  underclothing  ;  and  to-day  my  trunk  arrived,  the 
H.  D.  on  the  outside  having  been  carefully  annihilated, 
as  I  had  given  orders  that  it  should  be.  Speaking  of 
John  Driscoll,  by  the  way,  I  am  reminded  of  how 
charming  his  manner  is  with  poor  Fuller.  He  will  not 
let  Fuller  give  vent  to  more  than  ten  words  during  their 
meetings,  but  all  the  words  which  he  himself  speaks  are 
full  of  such  cheerful  unconscious  sweetness  that  whilst 
listening  I  feel  myself  vacillate  between  envy  and  admi- 
ration. A  few  days  ago  Fuller  woke  up  from  a  sort  of 
stupor  just  as  John  Driscoll  was  entering  the  room. 

"  John,  is  that  you  ?  "  he  whispered,  weakly. 

"  Yes,  old  fellow,  here  I  am."  By  this  he  had  gotten 
close  beside  Fuller's  bed  and  had  taken  one  of  his 
friend's  hands  between  both  his  own.  "  Getting  along 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  425 

finely,  I  hear. "  (He  hadn't  heard  anything  of  the  kind. ) 
' '  We'll  have  you  well  in  no  time,  at  this  rate."  And 
then  followed  a  smooth  stream  of  gentle  cheering 
nothings  that  were  more  than  his  medicine  to  the  inva- 
lid, I  don't  at  all  doubt. 

Well,  by  the  bye,  John  Driscoll  ought  to  exert  him- 
self a  little,  now,  in  helping  Fuller  to  bear  his  calamity. 
Heaven  knows,  he  assisted  him  with  enough  gusto  in 
going  to  meet  it ! 

April  28. — Fuller's  recovery  is  now  very  rapid. 
Three  days  ago  he  sat  up,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  great 
chair,  and  (ah,  how  I  hate  to  write  the  words  !)  Edith 
Everdell  paid  him  a  visit. 

Fuller's  whole  face  lit  with  a  look  of  unspeakable 
welcome  the  moment  his  eyes  met  hers.  He  stretched 
out  both  hands  toward  her  before  she  had  well  entered 
the  room.  And  then  she,  for  her  part,  hurried  toward 
him  with  a  matchless  deerlike  gracefulness,  and  knelt 
beside  his  chair  and  wreathed  his  neck  with  both  her 
arms.  I  saw  them  kiss  again  and  again ;  and  heard 
them  too.  Both  wanted  me  out  of  the  room,  very  pos- 
sibly, but  I  would  not  go.  The  thought  of  leaving  him 
alone  with  her  was  torture — even  worse  torture  than  to 
sit  (as  I  was  then  sitting)  by  a  rather  distant  window 
and  hear  their  low-murmured  sentences,  purposely  made 
too  low  for  my  ears. 

Only  now  and  then  I  could  catch  a  word  or  two. 
Once  I  heard  her  tell  him  this  lie  : 

"  Of  course  I  knew  that  if  you  recollected  me  at  all 
you  would  feel  sure-  of  how  I  was  suffering  and  suffer 
yourself*;  and  this  thought  has  made  me  right  miserable 
on  your  account." 

It  lasted  a  half-hour.  Or  rather,  at  the  end  of  a  half- 
hour  I  determined  that  it  should  not  last  any  longer, 


426  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

for  I  had  gotten  a  neuralgia  that  darted  between  my 
two  temples,  and  had  become  so  madly  nervous,  be- 
sides, that  to  sit  still  was  grown  a  deed  unperformable. 
So  up  I  rose  from  my  seat  at  the  window,  and  came 
forward  to  where  they  were  murmuring  together  with 
clasped  hands. 

Both  stared  at  me  with  rather  unangelic  eyes.  This 
was  the  first  time  I  had  met  Edith  Everdell  since  Flora's 
atrocious  attack  ;  about  which,  I  am  inclined  to  fancy, 
John  Driscoll  said  his  say  very  soon  after  its  occurrence. 
The  man  told  me  with  much  exactness  of  ocular  ex- 
pression :  "You  are  a  bore."  The  woman  told  me, 
with  an  increased  exactness,  if  anything:  "You  are  a 
bore,  and  I  hate  you." 

"  Mrs.  Everdell,  I  must  request  of  you  not  to  remain 
any  longer,"  I  plunged.  "  The  doctor  left  orders — " 

"  Oh,  bother  the  doctor's  orders,"  broke  in  Fuller. 

"  If  I  had  not  paid  strictest  heed  to  them,  sir,"  I  sol- 
emnly persisted,  "you  would  not  now  be  alive." 

Edith  Everdell  gave  the  daintiest  of  shudders.  ' '  How 
sepulchrally  she  talks  !  "  (uttering  the  words  whilst  her 
head,  with  all  its  glory  of  strange-colored  hair,  lifted  the 
crimson  charm  of  two  parted  lips  until  they  nearly 
touched  his.)  "  And  in  that  queer  harsh  voice,  too  ! 
Have  you  a  cold,  Mrs.  Peters  ?  " 

"  A  little  cold,"  I  made  answer,  struck  with  a  sudden 
fear  lest  this  change  which  I  am  obliged  to  adopt  in  my 
voice  when  before  Fuller  would  prove,  now  that  she 
also  heard  it,  provocative  of  fresh  suspicions.  Then  I 
went  on:  "  Mr.  Dobell,  please  oblige  me  by  doing  as  I 
wish." 

After  that  I  walked  away  from  them,  somehow  feel- 
ing sure  that  my  request  would  be  heeded ;  and  in  a 
very  few  moments  it  was  heeded. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  427 

"  I  hope  they'll  allow  me  to  see  you  every  day,  now," 
she  whispered,  with  cooing  wooing  voice,  whilst  stand- 
ing at  his  side  and  letting  her  hand  linger  between  both 
of  his  own.  "  If  you  only  knew  how  I  want  to  be  neai 
you,  and  how  long  and  lonely  the  days  are  !  " 

"  Do  you  go  out  often  ?  " 

"  Not  often."  Her  eyes  were  all  melancholy  tender- 
ness. "I  have  so  little  heart  for  anything,  Fuller, 
whilst  you  are  sick." 

"  But  you  must  not  give  way  to  such  feelings,  Edith," 
he  made  gentle  remonstrance.  "  Recollect  that  I  am 
better  now,  and  am  mending  very  fast." 

Then  this  sultana  of  hypocrites  leaned  down  and  gave 
him  a  farewell  kiss,  looking  goddesslike  in  her  beauty 
of  stooped  shoulders  and  long  faultless  thrust-out 
throat. 

I  felt  like  shouting  forth  my  thankfulness  when  the 
door  closed  behind  her,  as  at  last  it  did  close.  But  in- 
stead of  this  I  let  some  words  slip  from  between  my 
lips  that  I  would  have  given  worlds  to  unsay  a  moment 
after  their  utterance. 

"Are  you  quite  sure  that  that  woman  cares  for  you 
as  she  professes  to  care  ?  " 

He  stared  at  me  with  widest  eyes  of  astonishment  for 
a  second  or  more.  Then  his  face,  pale  as  it  already 
was,  grew  a  shade  paler.  "  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  he 
muttered. 

I  was  nearly  frightened  out  of  my  senses,  by  this 
time  ;  frightened  for  his  physical  sake  ;  frightened  as  I 
would  have  been  if  I  had  made  some  bad  blunder  in  the 
giving  of  his  medicines. 

"  Oh,  nothing  ;  nothing  at  all,"  I  hastened,  a  ner- 
vousness in  my  manner  that  just  bordered  upon  out- 
and-out  agitation.  "  It  merely  occurred  to  me,  as  one 


428  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

might  say,  to  ask  the  question.  /  know  nothing — of 
course  not." 

"Yes,  you  do  know,"  he  made  stern  response. 
Then,  smiling  a  quick  contemptuous  smile,  he  went  on  : 
"  Or  rather,  you  think  that  you  know.  Come,  tell  me 
at  once  what  yoti  mean." 

I  was  more  collected,  by  this,  and  had  begun  to  see 
a  possible  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  If  the  first  seeds  of 
distrust  for  Edith  Everdell  were  at  all  to  be  sown — the 
seeds  from  which  valuable  after-results  might  spring — 
why  not  sow  them  now,  when  the  chance  offered  ? 

I  drew  quite  near  to  him.  "  If  I  tell  you  what  I 
really  do  mean,  you  must  first  make  me  a  solemn 
promise,  Mr.  Dobell ;  the  kind  of  promise  that  we  in- 
tend to  keep  when  we  make  it,  you  know." 

"  What  promise  ?  "  he  questioned,  staring  hard  at 
me,  as  though  he  would  like  to  discover  the  color  of  my 
eyes  through  their  -opaque  spectacles. 

"  This  :  You  must  never  mention  a  word  of  what  I 
tell  you,  to  Mrs.  Everdell  or  anyone  who  could  repeat 
it  to  Mrs.  Everdell.  Will  you  make  me  such  a  prom- 
ise ?" 

He  stared  quite  a  while  longer  before  answering. 
"  Yes  ;  I  make  such  a  promise." 

"  Very  well.  I  meant,  then,  that  I  have  reason  to 
believe  that  she  does  go  out  very  often,  and  in  the 
evenings,  too,  though  she  has  just  told  you  that  she  has 
little  heart  for  anything  whilst  you  ara  sick.  That  is 
all :  please  believe  that  it  is  all.  We  had  better  not  say 
anything  more  on  the  subject,  just  now.  Perhaps — " 
but  I  paused  there,  wishing  that  I  had  not  begun  that 
,  new  sentence. 

"  Well  ?  "  he  queried,  sharply.     "  Perhaps  what  ?  " 

"  Perhaps  I  shall  try  to  give  you  some  proof  that  I 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


429 


have  spoken  truth,  at  some  future  time,  when  you  are 
stronger  and  better  able  to  hear  it." 

"  I  shall  remind  you  of  those  words,"  he  stated, 
sternly.  And  then,  whilst  he  grew  gloomily  silent  and 
remained  so  for  fully  a  half-hour,  until  the  arrival  of 
Dr.  Delmayne,  I  was  visited  by  all  sorts  of  dire  fears 
that  I  had  gone  too  far,  said  too  much,  behaved  like  an 
imprudent  fool. 

But  during  yesterday  and  to-day  he  has  shown  no 
signs  of  having  retrograded.  Perhaps  he  has  been 
silently  pooh-poohing  all  that  I  hinted  to  him.  His 
faith  in  the  truth  and  purity  of  that  arch-traitress  is 
strong  enough  to  make  him  regard  either  as  idlest 
malice  or  grossest  error  the  statements  of  any  such  in- 
ferior order  of  being  as  Mrs.  Peters,  I  have  no  doubt 
whatever.  Well,  such  faith  may  have  had  good  sani- 
tary results.  "  It  is  an  ill  winS,"  and  all  that. 

For  two  days  past  I  have  kept  Edith  Everdell  from 
the  room,  and  with  Dr.  Delmayne's  authoritative  veto 
at  my  service  whenever  I  want  it,  shall  be  able  to  con- 
tinue her  exile  at  least  a  week  longer.  Dr.  Delmayne 
assured  me  this  morning  that  Fuller  must  have  a  month 
more  of  convalescence  before  he  is  able  to  leave  the  room. 

A  month  !  Undoubtedly  for  three  weeks  I  shall  not 
have  power  to  keep  her  away  :  she  can  come  and  go 
when  she  pleases,  after  he  has  reached  a  certain  state  of 
bodily  soundness.  How  I  dread  the  thought  of  all 
this  !  And  what  a  fierce  animal  feeling  of  ferocity  pos- 
sesses me  when  I  recollect  the  work  I  am  now  well  re- 
solved to  carry  out — the  work  of  disenchanting,  disillu- 
sionizing Fuller.  In  good  time  I  must  have  a  talk  with 
John  Driscoll  about  this  vaguely-formed  plan  of  mine, 
and  use  all  my  eloquence  in  forcing  a  little  help  from 
him. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

[AY  8. — There  is  no  keeping  them  apart  any 
longer.  I  have  done  it  for  ten  days,  but  this 
morning  Fuller  himself  rose  in  open  rebellion 
and  told  Dr.  Delmayne  that  he  was  being  made  a  fool 
of.  "I  am  quite  well  enough  now,  doctor,  to  see 
whom  I  please,"  he  stated.  "  And  if  you  say  not  I 
shall  simply  believe  you  are  trying  to  humbug  me." 

The  doctor  made  snappish  enough  response,  but  that 
afternoon  Fuller  quietly  insisted  upon  my  sending  for 
Mrs.  Everdell,  whilst  he  sat  in  his  easy-chair,  having  a 
real  touch  of  healthful  color  on  either  cheek  and  some- 
thing quite  noticeable  in  the  way  of  a  blond  beard 
curling  closely  about  his  chin :  doubtless  the  beard 
would  have  been  a  sharp  surprise  to  me  if  I  had  seen  it 
all  at  once,  so  to  speak  ;  but  I  have  watched  its  gradual 
coming  and  am  therefore  grown  slowly  inured  to  the 
change  it  has  wrought. 

"Mrs.  Peters,"  he  informed  me,  "  if  you  don't  ring 
that  bell  for  a  servant  I  shall  get  up  and  do  so  myself : 
I  am  quite  able,  you  know — able,  for  that  matter,  to 
march  downstairs,  if  I  want.  And  when  the  servant 
comes  I  wish  a  message  sent  to  Mrs.  Everdell  that  I 
should  like  to  see  her." 

"  Just  as  you  please,  sir,"  I  succumbed,  feeling  that 
further  opposition  would  be  sheer  purposeless  kicking 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  431 

against  the  pricks,  and  that  the  loathed  ordeal  of  those 
daily  interviews  must  begin  from  now  henceforward. 

The  message  was  sent,  and  Edith  Everdell  presently 
appeared,  beautiful  as  one  of  the 

....    "  Daughters  of  dreams  and  of  stories 

That  life  is  not  wearied  of  yet, 
Faustine,  Fragoletta,  Dolores, 

Felise  and  Yolande  and  Juliette," 

being  all  fresh  rich  coloring  and  willowlike  grace  and 
divine  statuesque  curves. 

She  was  with  him  two  good  hours.  I  did  not  remain 
in  the  room  much  more  than  ten  minutes  after  she  had 
entered  it,  but  forced  myself  to  leave  them  alone  to- 
gether, feeling  that  there  was  less  torture,  after  all,  in 
putting  a  closed  door  between  Mrs.  Peters  and  that 
atrocious  serpent  of  deceit. 

After  this,  I  suppose,  she  is  to  be  with  him  for  hours 
each  day.  Oh,  it  is  almost  beyond  endurance  !  I  am 
somehow  free  from  all  bitter  thought  when  I  think  of 
Fuller's  behavior  ;  every  spiteful,  revengeful  and  ma- 
licious impulse  seems  to  turn  against  her.  Perhaps  I 
even  in  a  measure  exculpate  him,  remembering  his 
utter  belief  in  her,  and  remembering  also  her  marvellous 
unapproached  beauty. 

Before  long  he  must  surely  remind  me  of  the  proof  I 
promised  him.  It  is  odd  that  he  has  not  already  spoken. 
I  hope  his  demand  will  soon  be  made  ;  and  that  when  it 
is  made  good  luck  will  befriend  me  in  adequately  an- 
swering it. 

May  14. — She  is  near  him  half  the  day,  now.  And 
every  new  hour  that  they  are  together  seems  to  strength- 
en my  resolve  fourfold.  If  possible,  I  shall  show  her  to 
Fuller  in  her  beastly  reality  before  I  leave  this  house. 


432 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


Meanwhile  he  does  not  even  remotely  aid  my  purpose 
by  asking  me  for  that  proof. 

Were  it  not  for  John  Driscoll  and  Dr.  Delmayne,  I 
should  doubtless  be  forced  to  leave  here  at  once,  by  the 
bye.  Two  or  three  distinct  times  Fuller  has  thrown  out 
hints,  of  late,  pointedly  suggesting  that  he  is  well  enough 
not  to  need  me  any  more.  Edith  Everdell  has  been  at 
work,  I  feel  confident,  counselling  him  to  assume  this 
style.  But  it  is  quite  useless.  This  morning  I  found 
an  opportunity  of  button-holeing  Dr.  Delmayne,  so  to 
speak,  just  outside  the  door  of  the  patient's  chamber. 

"  Doctor,"  I  stated,  "  they  are  trying  to  get  me  away 
from  here  ;  or  rather  that  woman  is  trying  it.  I  don't 
want  to  go  yet ;  I  shall  not  go  yet.  You  must  help  me 
to  remain."  And  then  I  told  him  precisely  what  I  have 
gotten  firmly  to  believe  regarding  Edith  Everdell's  per- 
suasion of  Fuller. 

"  Don't  doubt  it  at  all,"  he  growled,  in  cross  ellipsis. 
"  Devil  of  a  woman,  I  daresay,  and  up  to  anything  bad, 
from  a  fib  to  a  murder.  Mrs.  Peters,  you  shall  remain 
here  as  long  as  there's  a  vestige  of  excuse  for  your  re- 
maining, and  that  ends  the  story." 

Whereupon  Dr.  Delmayne,  after  standing  for  a  second 
or  two  with  meditative  forefinger  pressed  fervently 
against  one  side  of  his  nose,  darted  toward  the  door  of 
Fuller's  room  and  pounced  upon  his  patient  with  the 
following  language  : 

"  Mrs.  Peters  tells  me  that  she  thinks  of  going.  I 
have  just  answered  Mrs.  Peters  to  the  effect  that  she 
will  greatly  displease  me  if  she  does 'go  inside  of  at  least 
— at  the  very  -very  least — ten  days  longer. " 

"  Why  ten  days,  doctor  ?  "  I  heard  Fuller's  composed 
tones  ask.  "  I  am  well  enough  now  to  do  nearly  every- 
thing for  myself." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  43  3 

"You  are  nothing  of  the  sort,"  contradicted  the  doc- 
tor, quite  furiously.  "It  is  Mrs.  Peters  and  Human 
Ingratitude,  combined,  that  lead  you  to  the  glaring 
blunder  of  such  an  opinion.  Mrs.  Peters  has  been  to 
you  for  weeks  past  what  the  cord  is  to  the  bow,  what 
the  hand  is  to  the  arm,  what  the  eyelid  is  to  the  eye. 
She  has  stood  at  your  elbow  in  such  perpetual  readiness 
to  be  of  service  that  you  have  grown  to  take  her  for 
granted,  to  accept  her  as  an  inanimate  matter-of-course, 
like  the  chair  you  sit  in  or  the  spoon  you  drink  your 
medicine  out  of.  You  are  not  aware,  sir,  how  you  would 
miss  her  if  she  went.  I  am.  Why,  what  did  one  of 
my  patients  say,  the  morning  after  Mrs.  Peters  went 
from  her  bedside  ?  '  Doctor,'  mourned  the  patient,  '  I 
feel  as  if  I'd  lost  three  slats  out  of  my  bed.'  That's  the 
way  you  would  feel.  No,  sir  ;  ten  days  longer ;  ten 
days  at  the  least — possibly  fifteen,  as  I  told  Mrs.  Peters 
a  minute  ago.  I  have  also  told  Mrs.  Peters  that  she 
positively  must  remain.  And  she  is  going  to  remain. 
So  that  ends  the  story." 

I  think  my  champion  has  gained  my  cause  for  me. 
Ten  days  are  a  long  while.  I  may  accomplish  marvels 
in  that  time. 


19 


CHAPTER  XL. 

|AY  1 8. — And  at  last  I  have  fairly  begun  the 
work  of  disenchantment.  This  morning,  when 
John  Driscoll  came,  I  managed  to  have  some 
words  with  him  in  the  hall ;  words  which  I  took  care 
should  be  very  low  and  cautiously-spoken  on  either 
side ;  for  with  Margaret  and  that  disreputable  Flora 
both  in  the  house,  there  is  no  telling  what  deeds  of 
eavesdropping  might  be  attempted. 

He  heard  my  proposal  with  a  blank  bewildered  stare. 
"  Even  if  you  were  not  treading  upon  such  dangerous 
ground,"  he  soon  made  earnest  murmur,  "  even  if  you 
were  not  trying  to  dethrone  Edith  Everdell  here  in 
Edith  Everdell's  own  house,  how  would  it  be  possible 
for  you  to  change  Fuller's  unchangeable  faith?  " 

"Simply  by  making  him  an  eye-witness  of  what 
would  prove  to  him  her  vileness  beyond  any  shadow  of 
doubt.  It  seems  to  me  that  here,  in  the  creature's  own 
house,  we  should  be  able — " 

"Oh,  impossible,"  he  broke  in.  "No  plan  could 
be  more  unfeasible  than  that." 

I  smiled  sourly.  "  You  said  something  of  the  same 
sort  about  my  coming  here.  Wild  and  impracticable 
as  tJiat  plan  was,  look  how  perfectly  it  has  succeeded." 

We  separated  not  long  afterward,  by  no  means  on  the 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  435 

best  of  terms.  At  least  I  was  far  from  feeling  very 
amiably  toward  him,  though  doubtless  he  bore  me  no 
special  grudge  for  having  made  a  somewhat  successful 
attempt  to  snub  me. 

All  the  rest  of  the  day  a  little  hand  seemed  perpetu- 
ally tapping  me  on  the  shoulder  and  a  little  voice  whis- 
pering in  my  ear.  *  Begin  now,'  whispered  the  little 
voice.  '  Nearly  every  night  she  passes  upstairs  to  her 
room  on  the  lower  floor,  sometimes  bonneted,  some- 
times with  wraps  about  head  and  shoulders,  always 
with  unmistakable  signs  of  having  just  returned  home. 
And  yet  she  tells  him  that  she  rarely  goes  out  by  day, 
never  at  night :  she  dares  to  tell  him  this,  in  her  brazen 
confidence  that  he  will  believe  her.  Begin  now,'  whis- 
pered the  little  voice.  '  Your  chance  for  beginning  is 
good.  Why  neglect  it  ?  Don't  neglect  it.  Begin 
now.' 

But  I  paid  the  little  voice  the  tardy  respect  of  not  be- 
ginning until  after  dark  this  very  evening.  From  early 
in  the  afternoon  of  to-day  until  nearly  six  o'clock,  Edith 
Everdell  had  been  with  Fuller  :  I  think  it  was  this, 
more  than  anything  else,  that  spurred  me  into  immedi- 
ate action.  I  have  gotten  to  hate  the  thought  of  leav- 
ing them  together  and  to  hate  the  thought  of  being 
near  them  when  they  are  together.  To-day  a  sort  of 
compromise  with  these  two  aversions  resulted  in  my 
making  incidental  visits  to  Fuller's  room,  at  distances 
of  about  ten  minutes  apart.  She  had  gotten  for  herself 
a  large  tufted  chair,  much  lower  than  that  in  which  he 
was  seated,  and  had  made  her  figure  one  superb  languid 
curvature  over  the  side  nearest  to  him  ;  and  against  the 
dark  back  of  his  own  chair  her  head  rested,  small,  clear- 
seen  and  of  peerless  waved  contour,  postured  with  such 
luxurious  grace  of  lazy  ease  that  her  pale  sleek  throat 


436 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN 


bulged  forward  its  chaste-colored  roundness  below  soft- 
molded  chin  and  the  rich  moist  bloom  of  lifted  lips. 
And  his  own  face,  a  trifle  above  hers,  was  so  near  it 
that  he  must  have  breathed  her  breath,  she  his.  There 
was  no  chronic  holding  of  hands ;  or  possibly  this  was 
the  one  scrap  of  notice  which  they  paid  my  presence, 
and  some  temporary  manual  divorce  took  place  when- 
ever I  entered  the  room,  to  be  annulled  again  an  instant 
after  my  exit. 

At  about  dusk,  just  after  I  had  come  in  and  lighted 
the  gas,  she  uncurled  herself,  as  it  were,  and  raised  from 
its  resting-place  her  head,  with  all  its  odd  splendor  of 
prodigal  hair,  and  presently  stood  at  his  side,  having 
taken  one  of  his  hands  in  each  of  her  own  and  begun  to 
swing  them  gently  that  way  and  this.  "  Good-night," 
she  murmured.  "  I  must  go  now." 

"And  shan't  I  see  you  this  evening,  Edith?"  he 
tenderly  wanted  to  know.  "  The  evenings  are  so  stu- 
pid from  seven  till  nine." 

"They  will  not  let  me  come,"  she  answered,  her 
sweet  voice  seeming  to  tremble  with  plaintive  regret. 
' 'That  bear  of  a  Doctor  Delmayne  insisted,  the  other 
day,  that  I  should  never  visit  you  in  the  evenings." 

"  And  why  not,  pray  ?  " 

A  smile  broke  from  her  rich  lips  like  a  gold  bee  from 
some  crimson  flower.  "  You  are  not  to  be  excited. 
He  ranks  me  among  your  excitements.  Flattering, 
even  though  cruel ;  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  And  so  we  must  both  pass  stupid  evenings  because 
of  that  despot."  I  fancied  that  his  face  lost  a  little  of 
its  easy  amiability,  just  here,  whilst  lifted  to  hers. 
"By  the  bye,  you  are  not  going  out  or  anything,  to- 
night?" 

She  dropped  his  hands  and  gave  her  head  a  little  in- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  437 

tolerant  toss.  "  Fuller,  I  believe  you  don't  believe  me 
when  I  tell  you  things,  nowadays."  There  were  almost 
tears  in  her  broken  voice,  and  her  smooth  round  chin, 
with  its  one  exquisite  dimple,  just  vaguely  quivered  for 
a  second.  "  Why  should  I  care  to  go  out  ?  and  haven't 
I  told  you  that  I  scarcely  ever  have  the  heart  to  go, 
even  in  the  day-time  ?  Oh,  Fuller,  you  ought  to  be- 
lieve me  !  When  have  you  ever  known  me  not  to  tell 
you  the  perfect  truth  ?  " 

For  a  moment,  whilst  the  gaslight  struck  .her  divine 
profile  and  showed  me  how  the  beautiful  eloquence  of 
reproach  in  her  face  was  mingled  with  an  equal  eloquence 
of  appeal,  I  found  myself  forgetting  utterly  that  she  was 
a  liar  and  a. hypocrite,  whilst  I  remembered  solely  that 
she  was  a  woman  on  whom  heaven  had  showered  the 
most  unstinted  largesse  of  ravishing  fleshly  charms.  It 
was  a  kind  of  stagnant  calm  with  me  before  the  indig- 
nant .storm  burst  over  my  soul.  A  moment  later  I  had 
set  my  teeth  close  together  and  the  breath  was  making 
quite  an  audible  rush  through  my  nostrils.  Oh,  with 
what  pure  comfort  I  could  have  dashed  up  to  her,  then, 
and  shrieked  forth:  "You  are  nauseating  with  your 
lies  ;  and  I  dare  you  to  prove  that  you  have  not  gone 
out  four  nights  of  this  present  week  and  never  once  re- 
turned till  after  eleven,  at  the  earliest."  Pure  comfort 
would  it  indeed  have  been,  to  shout  out  this  fiery  chal- 
lenge !  Instead  of  doing  so  I  went  from  window  to 
window,  pulling  down  the  shades,  one  of  which  I  gave 
such  a  violent  jerk  that  I  jerked  it  from  its  roller,  poor 
blameless  victim  of  my  wrath  ! 

And  just  as  I  accomplished  this  little  piece  of  injustice. 
Fuller  was  answering  with  an  almost  passionate  force  : 
11 1  do  believe  you,  Edith  ;  I  would  believe  you  in  spite 
of  all  the  world's  counter-evidence,  there  isn't  a  single 


438  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

doubt."  Then,  having  caught  her  hand  whilst  she  let  it 
just  linger  in  his  hold  and  no  more,  turning  away  her 
head  till  he  could  only  gain  a  side-glimpse  of  her  milky 
throat,  with  the  frail  pink  ear  above  it  and  the  warm- 
colored  fluctuant  hair  drawn  back  from  the  vague-veined 
temple,  he  progressed,  in  tones  of  intenser  emphasis  : 
"  I  admit,  Edith,  that  I  have  been  a  trifle  inquisitive 
about  the  matters  of  your  goings  and  comings — almost 
enough  so  to  make  you  fancy  me  distrustful.  But  I'm 
not  distrustful.  Don't  be  angry  with  me.  Look  round 
and  say  that  you  are  not  angry." 

Whereat  her  face  was  slowly  turned  toward  him, 
brilliant  with  a  pardoning  smile.  "We  will  make  an 
agreement,  then,  that  you  are  not  to  taunt  me  again 
with  these  horrid  unjust  hints.  Promise  that  you  will 
not,  Fuller." 

"  I  promise,  with  all  my  heart !  " 

The  moment  she  had  left  the  room  I  felt  that  my  time 
for  speaking  out  might  far  better  have  been  postponed, 
perhaps,  until  to-night.  Between  eight  and  nine  o'clock 
Edith  Everdell  would  probably  take  her  departure  for 
somewhere.  A  little  clever  sentinelship  in  the  outside 
hall  would  probably  afford  me  a  chance  of  making  sure 
as  to  whether  she  really  went  or  no.  Then,  armed  with 
the  certainty  of  her  absence,  I  could  at  last  use  my 
tongue  with  far  better  effect  after  her  recent  daring  false- 
hood to  Fuller,  and  prove  that 

' '  Qui  veut  un  jour  bien  parler 
Doit  cTabord  apprendre  a  se  taire" 

A  little  after  eight  o'clock,  that  evening,  a  carriage 
drove  up  to  the  door  and  stopped  there.  So  far  so 
good.  I  slipped  into  the  outer  hall  and  leaned  over  the 
banisters.  My  view  well  commanded  a  small  space  of  hall 
directly  in  front  of  Edith  Everdell's  room.  She  would 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  439 

doubtless  appear,  presently,  and  presently  she  did  ap- 
pear, followed  by  Flora  and  going  straight  downstairs 
into  the  lower  hall. 

I  made  sure  that  it  was  she,  after  one  good  glimpse 
of  her  face  in  the  bright  gaslight.  She  was  dressed 
darkly  and  bonneted,  as  was  also  Flora. 

Then  I  slipped  back  into  my  own  room,  and  waited  near 
the  window,  not  lifting  the  shade.  Perhaps  three  minutes 
later  there  came  the  sharp  sound  of  a  shutting  carriage- 
door.  Then  the  sound  of  wheels,  rolling  away.  She 
had  gone  to-night,  as  I  have  heard  her  go  on  many  a 
previous  night. 

A  little  while  afterward  I  entered  Fuller's  room.  He 
sat  in  his  great  chair,  reading,  and  only  glanced  up  for 
a  moment  when  I  appeared.  I  came  very  near  to  him 
and  stood  at  his  side. 

"  Mr.  Dobell,"  I  murmured,  in  that  odd  roughened 
voice  which  it  has  gotten  almost  a  second-nature  with 
me  to  use. 

"Well?"  (rather  sharply.) 

"  Some  time  ago,"  I  began,  in  fearless  prelude,  "  you 
stated  that  you  were  going  to  remind  me  of  what  I  said 
regarding  Mrs.  Everdell's  habit  of  leaving  the  house  in 
the  evenings.  You  have  not  done  so,  although  I  have 
been  waiting  for  you  to  do  so  ever  since." 

His  face  was  harshly  darkened  whilst  he  made  harsh 
answer:  "  I  let  the  subject  drop,  for  reasons  of  my 
own.  I  didn't  suppose  you  would  resume  it.  And 
why  do  you  resume  it  now  ?  " 

"  Because  I  think  you  are  deceived  about  the  real 
truth,  and  quite  contented  in  your  deception.  And 
because,  if  you  choose,  she  has  just  gone  off  in  a  car- 
riage, not  five  minutes  ago." 

He   rose   up  from  his  chair  whilst  his   eyes   flashed 


440  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

at  me.  "  Be  careful  how  you  assert  things,  Mrs. 
Peters ! " 

I  smiled.  "  You  can  prove  it  for  yourself.  Ring  the 
bell  and  inquire." 

Without  another  word  he  walked  toward  the  bell  and 
acted  on  my  suggestion.  Then  he  walked  back  to  his 
chair  and  took  up  his  book  and  tried  to  make  me  be- 
lieve that  he  was  reading,  whilst  his  eyes  were  fixed  on 
the  print  before  him  and  his  face  was  pale  and  sternly 
set. 

Not  long  afterward  there  came  a  knock  at  the  door. 
"  Come  in,"  Fuller  invited,  with  short  sharpness. 

Enter  Margaret,  all  fat  dignity  and  ludicrous  reluc- 
tance. "Jane's  out,"  she  mumbled  immediate  expla- 
nation, "  and  I  had  to  come  instead.  What's  wantin', 
please  ?  " 

"  I  wish  that  you  would  tell  Mrs.  Everdell,"  stated 
Fuller,  ' '  that  I  should  like  to  see  her  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble." 

I  saw  the  obese  creature  conceal  a  surprised  start. 
il  Mrs.  Everdell,  sir  ?"  (opening  the  somnolent  little 
eyes  about  as  widely  as  she  could.) 

"  You  heard  me,  didn't  you  ?  "  was  the  rather  brusque 
retort. 

Margaret  stood  stone-still  and  speechless.  Was  she 
gathering  together  her  fluttered  wits  ?  From  her  slow 
sulky  answer,  presently  blurted  forth,  I  should  suppose 
yes. 

"  Mrs.  Everdell's  gone  to  bed,  sir." 

Fuller  clouded  his  brows,  then,  and  spoke  with  quick 
decisiveness.  "  It  makes  no  difference.  I  wish  to  see 
her,  all  the  same.  Carry  her  my  message.  If  she  is 
asleep,  give  it,  all  the  same." 

"  I  don't  like  to,   sir,"  came  the  glib  lie  from  her 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


441 


mistress's  own  servant.     "  She  ain't  well  at  all ;  that's 
the  reason  she's  went  to  bed  so  early." 

"Is  it,  indeed  ?"  he  cried,  starting  up,  with  irate 
face.  "Are  you  sure,  my  good  woman,  that  you're 
telling  me  the  truth  ?  " 

A  bad  hard  look  came  over  the  ugly  fleshful  face,  at 
this.  "  Of  course  I'm  tellin'  the  truth.  I  don't  as 
usual  tell  lies." 

"  Oh,  you  don't?  Then  prove  that  you've  told  me 
the  truth  by  going  downstairs  and  giving  my  message, 
whether  your  mistress  is  sick  or  well.  If  she  is  too  sick 
to  see  me  I  will  go  down  and  see  her." 

Fright  and  ill-humor  seemed  to  be  waging  war  with 
each  other,  now,  on  the  woman's  face.  What  fresh 
unspoken  lie  rushed  to  her  lips  I  can't  tell.  Evident- 
ly she  saw  that  she  had  been  cornered,  checkmated, 
found  out,  and  that  the  lie  would  be  quite  futile ;  for 
whilst  scowling  a  great  malicious  scowl,  she  suddenly 
veered  round  with  awkward  bulky  haste  and  bundled 
herself  out  of  the  room,  slamming  the  door  behind 
her. 

Fuller  sprang  from  his  chair  on  the  instant  and  hur- 
ried toward  the  door,  opening  it  and  going  out  into  the 
hall  beyond. 

"  You  have  a  good  place  here,"  I  heard  him  cry, 
"  and  I  know  you  value  it.  But  I  promise  you  that 
you  shall  lose  it  to-morrow  unless  you  tell  me  the  pre- 
cise truth  :  is  Mrs.  Everdell  in  at  present,  or  out  ?  " 

Silence.  Then  Fuller's  voice  again.  "  Do  you  hear 
what  I  say  ?  Is  your  mistress  at  home,  or  has  she  gone 
out?" 

More  silence.  Presently  a  dull  sullen  unwilling  sort 
of  grunt,  to  this  laconic  effect : 

"She's  gone  out." 
19* 


442  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Very  soon  after  receiving  that  information,  Fuller 
reappeared.  He  seated  himself  and  took  up  his  book 
again,  staring  at  it  as  before.  Suddenly  he  laid  the 
book  down  and  glared  at  me. 

"  You  have  made  the  statement,  I  believe,  that  it  is 
Mrs.  Everdell's  habit  to  leave  the  house  every  evening." 

"  Nearly  every  evening,"  I  calmly  corrected. 

"You  are  prepared,  I  suppose,  to  abide  by  your 
statement  when  she  returns  to-night  ?  " 

"  I  should  rather  not  do  so,"  sped  my  prompt  re- 
sponse. 

"And  may  I  ask  why?"  he  burst  forth,  with  the 
look  of  an  inquisitor. 

"  Simply  for  this  reason:  Mrs.  Everdell  already  dis- 
likes me  heartily.  I  wish  to  be  mixed  up  in  no  quarrej 
with  her.  Perhaps  I  have  acted  unwisely  in  telling  you 
the  truth,  even  though  I  saw  that  you  were  being  alto- 
gether deceived.  Indeed,  let  me  beg  of  you  that  my 
name  shall  not  be  mentioned  during  whatever  discus- 
sions may  follow.  I  think  that  when  I  ask  this  of  you 
I  am  asking  little  else  than  a  course  of  common  gener- 
osity. I  must  ask,  still  further,  that  you  will  have  the 
goodness  to  reflect  on  my  request." 

He  kept  silence  for  quite  a  little  time  after  my  words 
were  ended,  at  first  searching  my  spectacled  inscrutable 
face  so  steadily  that  I  almost  had  fears  lest  he  would 
pierce  beyond  the  exterior  husk  of  Mrs.  Peters  and  find 
the  Helen  Dobell  hidden  beyond  it :  and  then  he  ab- 
ruptly dropped  his  eyes,  remaining  thoughtful  and  ab- 
sorbed until  he  at  length  lingeringly  murmured  : 

"  I  think  you  are  right.  Provided  your  charges  be 
just  charges,  you  deserve  my  thanks.  I  shall  shield  you 
from  Mrs.  Everdell's  ill-will,  if  thorough  avoidance  of 
your  name  can  do  that  much.  But — "  and  here  his 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  443 

eyes  lifted  themselves  to  my  face  whilst  flashing  faintly 
— "  if  your  charges  be  z/;?just — " 

"  Then  yours  should  not  be  more  unjust,"  I  broke  in. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  he  wanted  to  know,  puz- 
zledly. 

"That  you  should  not  accuse  me  of  telling  what  I 
have  told  from  mere  contemptible  motives  of  malice. 
Moreover,  if  Edith  Everdell  denies  that,  this  or  the 
other,  you  would  be  most  unjust  in  accepting  her  de- 
nial as  thorough  truth.  Because  you  believe  in  her  ab- 
solute honesty  you  should  not  doubt  mine.  Hear  what- 
ever she  says  and  take  it,  if  you  please,  as  evidence  of  a 
certain  weight ;  but  do  not  use  it  as  a  means  of  putting 
my  evidence  to  scorn  ;  for  until  you  have  clear  proof 
that  I  have  spoken  falsehood,  it  is  my  right  to  demand 
from  you  something  very  like  trust." 

I  knew  that  Margaret's  brazen  detected  duplicity  had 
paved  my  way  for  me,  and  the  boldness  which  I  threw 
into  my  words  took  origin  from  this  consideration. 
"  Like  mistress,  like  maid,"  was  possibly  ringing  in  his 
ears,  just  then.  How  gloriously  Margaret  had  abetted 
my  cause,  against  her  own  malevolent  will  ! 

"  What  do  you  call  '  clear  proof  ?  "  Fuller  presently 
asked,  with  troubled  face  and  troubled  voice. 

"  Proof  given  you  by  your  own  senses  of  sight  or 
hearing.  Proof  that  depends  on  no  one's  word  of 
mouth.  As  regards  the  matter  of  Mrs.  Everdell's  hav- 
ing gone  out  many  times  before  to-night,  such  proof  is 
now  of  course  impossible.  But  there  will  probably 
come  a  time,"  I  went  on,  feeling  boldness  enough  to 
utter  the  bold  necessary  words,  "  when  I  may  prove  to 
you,  in  other  ways,  that  her  truthfulness  is  not  what 
you  have  evidently  been  believing  it." 

Again   he  started  up  from  his   chair,   full  of  angry 


444 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


fierceness  ;  (it  is  wonderful,  by  the  bye,  how  little  like 
his  calm  self,  how  excitable,  how  Melville-Delanoish  his 
illness  had  made  him.  But  I  havs  slight  doubt  that 
although  still  weak,  still  nervous,  he  is  convalescent 
enough  to  bear  whatever  shocks  I  have  been  causing 
him.) 

"  You  are  most  audacious,"  he  cried,  "  to  stand  there 
and  infer  slanderous  things  against  a  person  in  whom  I 
have  always  put  absolute  trust.  I  will  give  you,  how- 
ever, one  week  to  furnish  the  proofs  you  speak  of — one 
week,  during  which  I  shall  mention  to  nobody  our  con- 
versation of  to-night.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  if  you 
fail  to  furnish  the  evidence  required,  I  shall  lose  what 
little  faith  your  manner  has  somehow  roused  in  me,  and 
you  must  at  once  leave  the  house.  Is  this  an  agree- 
ment between  us,  or  do  you  decline  making  it?  " 

One  week  !  A  short  time,  surely  !  But  in  one  week 
much  might  be  accomplished — as  much,  after  all,  as  in 
two  or  three.  I  had  indeed  best  acquiesce  ;  and  for 
that  matter,  what  other  course  than  acquiescence  re- 
mained to  me  ?  What  other  course  except  a  forced  de- 
parture from  the  house  ? 

"Very  well,"  I  gave  lingering  consent.  Then  I 
spoke  much  more  rapidly.  "  In  one  week's  time  I  hope 
to  have  satisfied  you." 

Fuller  sat  down  again,  pale  and  solemn-browed. 

"  I  wish  you  would  leave  me  alone  now,"  he  mut- 
tered, very  gruffly.  "  I  shall  sit  up  until  Mrs.  Everdell 
returns.  Do  you  feel  able  to  prophesy  when  that  will 
be?" 

"  No,"  I  answered.     "  Perhaps  not  until  after  eleven." 

".Very  well,"  he  made  dogged  resolve;  "if  it  isn't 
till  five  in  the  morning  I  shall  sit  up  for  her  just  the 
same." 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  445 

"  Will  not  to-morrow  do  just  as  well,  sir,  for  saying 
all  you  wish  to  say  ?  Remember,"  was  offered  in  placid 
remonstrance  by  what  I  may  call  my  Mrs.  Peters  por- 
tion, "the  doctor  recommends  nine  o'clock  as  your 
regular  hour  for  going  to  bed." 

"  I  don't  care,"  he  fumed,  childishly.  "  Let  me  ask 
you  again,  Mrs.  Peters,  to  leave  the  room.  If  \  want 
anything,  I  will  call  for  it." 

But  he  has  not  called  me  since  I  left  him  ;  and  dur- 
ing more  than  two  hours  I  have  been  seated  here  in  my 
own  room,  Diary,  by  turns  thinking  and  telling  you 
what  has  recently  happened.  And  now,  just  as  I  finish 
my  account,  there  is  the  sound  of  a  carriage  stopping  at 
the  street-door.  She  has  returned.  Fuller  has  heard 
the  carriage  stop  and  has  gone  out  into  the  hall. 

He  means  to  burst  upon  her  like  a  bomb-shell  as  she 
comes  upstairs,  I  suppose. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

|AY  19. — Because  my  room  opens  into  Fuller's 
by  one  door  and  into  the  hall  by  another,  I  was 
enabled,  last  night,  to  hear  everything  that 
passed,  quite  distinctly.  Everything,  I  repeat,  for  the 
reason  that  Fuller  evidently  did  not  go  downstairs,  but 
remained,  doubtless,  as  I  myself  had  done  about  two 
hours  previously,  in  a  place  where  he  could  see  those 
two  creatures  as  they  came  upstairs. 

It  was  not  long  before  I  heard  his  clear  strong  voice 
call  out : 

"  Edith." 

There  was  no  answer.  The  bomb-shell  had  burst. 
If  Margaret  had  opened  the  door,  it  was  an  explosion 
for  which  they  were  not  wholly  unprepared.  If  not,  it 
had  all  the  banging  abruptness  which  I  devoutly  desired 
it  to  have. 

Fuller's  voice  again,  a  slight  while  afterward  : 

"  Edith,  you  hear  me,  do  you  not?  " 

"Yes,  Fuller;  what  is  it?"  The  reply  was  just 
audible  to  me. 

"  I  wish  you  to  come  upstairs.  I  wish  to  speak  with 
you." 

"Yes;  certainly."     Again  a  just-audible  reply. 

Then  I  heard  Fuller  walk  with  firrn   even  steps  into 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  447 

his  own  room.  Certainly  three  minutes  elapsed  before 
there  was  a  rustling  in  the  hall  as  of  silken  garments. 
The  rustling  drew  nearer  to  Fuller's  room,  and  finally 
seemed  to  pass  within  it. 

Then  I  heard  him  remark  with  short-toned  sharpness, 
after  a  little  apparent  interval  of  silence  between  the 
two,  whilst  they  were  doubtless  facing  one  another : 

"  You  have  taken  off  your  bonnet." 

"  Yes  ;  "  (in  a  nervous  fluttered  murmur)  "  I  stopped 
a  minute  to  take  it  off.  Aren't  you  up  rather  later  than 
usual  ?  I  didn't  suppose  — 

He  cut  her  short,  then.  "  You  are  right.  I  am 
up  much  later  than  usual.  I  chose  to  sit  up  until  you 
got  home.  I  wished  to  ask  you  where  you  had  been 
and  why  you  preferred  to  conceal  your  going  out  by  the 
telling  of  a  deliberate  falsehood." 

"Fuller!" 

"Don't  assume  the  reproachful,  please."  (He  was 
so  like  the  Fuller  of  ordinary  days,  now  ;  the  quiet- 
speaking  well  Fuller,  not  the  irascible  sick  one.)  "  You 
know  it  is  quite  useless  to  deny  that  you  told  me  a  false- 
hood this  afternoon  ;  or  rather  acted  it,  which  I  regard 
as  equally  bad,  if  not  worse.  At  first  I  could  scarcely 
credit  that  you  were  really  leaving  the  house.  I  rang 
the  bell  after  your  carriage  had  gone  from  the  door,  and 
Margaret  appeared.  The  woman  tried  to  hide  from  me 
the  facts  of  the  case  by  two  most  unblushing  falsehoods  ; 
but  I  finally  forced  her  into  confessing  that  you  had 
really  gone  out  and  were  neither  in  bed  nor  sick." 

"  I  am  not  responsible  for  Margaret's  conscience," 
came  the  low  slow  answer. 

"No?"  (with  composed  bitterness).  "Your  own 
doesn't  seem  to  involve  a  very  heavy  responsibility, 
either." 


448  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Do  not  be  too  hasty  in  offering  me  insult,"  rippled 
her  answer,  all  serenity  and  fluent  cadences.  "  You 
may  regret  your  haste,  presently.  Appearances  throw 
dust  in  people's  eyes  to  liberal  amounts,  now  and  then." 

"  You  are  certainly  not  going  to  deny  that  you  left 
the  house  more  than  two  hours  ago." 

"  I  have  no  such  intention ;  "  (whilst  a  quiver,  as  of 
hfirt  dignity,  seemed  faintly  to  jar  the  words).  "I 
rrVereb^paean  that  although  I  left  the  house  I  left  it  for 
the  simple  purpose  of  serving  you." 

"  Serving  me  !  " 

She  seemed  to  speak  as  from  a  soulful  of  melancholy, 
now.  She  was  not  shedding  tears,  but  every  separate 
word  dropped  like  the  dropping  of  a  tear.  "Yes; 
serving  you.  Look  as  skeptical  as  you  please ;  I 
mean  it,  Fuller  Dobell.  But  how  can  you  care  to  hear 
my  defense  ?  And  why  should  I  "  (  with  a  vague  flash 
of  indignation,  at  this  point)  "  degrade  myself  by  any 
defense,  when  I  am  wholly  innocent  ?  " 

"Innocent  of  what?"  I  could  imagine  the  blank 
amazement  on  his  face  whilst  he  spoke. 

"Of  doing  anything  but  trying  to  shield  you  from 
scandalous  comments,"  throbbed  her  passionate  answer. 
(Ah,  what  a  marvellous  voice  that  woman  has !  To 
hear  her  voice  and  see  her  face  at  one  and  the  same 
time  weakens  the  effect  of  each,  I  fancy,  since  each  is 
such  a  curiosity — this  of  melody,  that  of  loveliness.) 
"  Oh,  Fuller,  it  is  because  I  love  you  so  dearly,  I  sup- 
pose, that  I  take  from  you  now  what  no  living  creature 
should  say  to  me  and  not  win  my  worst  ill-will  for  say- 
ing it.  Well,  hear  the  real  truth  ;  hear  how  unjustly 
you  have  attacked  me.  Yesterday  somebody  sent 
Flora  a  theatre-box  for  to-night.  She  asked  me  to  go, 
and  I  laughed  in  her  face,  believing  that  she  was  joking. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  449 

But  I  learned,  very  soon,  that  she  was  in  good  earnest. 
'  You  think  it  an  awful  thing  for  me  to  ask  you/  she 
told  me,  '  whilst  Fuller  Dobell  is  sick  ;  but  do  you 
know  that  I  have  heard  more  than  one  person  express 
surprise  at  your  sudden  change  to  this  quiet  shut-up 
life  ?  I  suppose  it's  your  wish  that  suspicions  as  to 
where  he  is  and  why  he  is  here,  should  not  begin  to 
form  in  people's  minds/  '  Of  course  that  is  my  wish,' 
I  made  answer;  'you  know  it  very  well,  Flora/ 
*  Then  don't  make  quite  such  a  nun  of  yourself,'  she  re- 
turned, adding  much  more  than  that,  and  much  that  I 
could  not  help  feeling  was  prudent  counsel.  The  result 
has  been  that  I  have  gone  to-night,  Fuller,  and  that  I 
have  deceived  you  about  my  going  for  just  this  reason 
and  no  other :  I  was  afraid  that  even  after  hearing  my 
explanation  you  would  be  bothered  with  fancies  of  how 
I  had  gone  because  I  really  wanted  to  go,  and  not  be- 
cause I  only  wanted  people  to  think  so." 

I  knew  that  she  had  gained  a  victory  (gained  at  least 
a  temporary  one)  some  time  before  the  mellow  rhythm 
and  richness  of  her  voice  had  ended  the  magnificent  art 
of  its  murmur.  There  was,  indeed,  hardly  a  second  of 
silence  after  she  had  finished,  for  Fuller's  answer  came 
immediately,  hot  as  with  shame  for  his  own  gross 
wrong-doing. 

"  Edith,  I  take  it  all  back,  darling  !  I  ask  your  par- 
don. I  was  an  infernal  goose.  What !  angry  yet ! 
Don't  cry ;  or  if  you  do,  tell  me  I'm  forgiven  before 
you've  actually  begun." 

"  It  is  not  a  question  of  forgiveness,"  came  the  trem- 
ulous reproach.  "  Ah,  no  ;  I  can  forgive  you  easily 
enough.  But  the  thought'  of  your  having  suspected  me 
is  so  trying  a  one,  Fuller  !  Did  you  suspect  of  your 
own  accord,  by  the  bye,  or  were  you  made  to  suspect 


450 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


by  others?  John  Driscoll  never  liked  me  ;  that  Dr. 
Delmayne  hates  me,  for  some  strange  reason,  I  think ; 
and  Mrs.  Peters—" 

"  No,  no,"  he  broke  in,  though  without  any  deep 
earnestness  of  denial ;  "  blame  me  and  me  only,  Edith." 

"  But  I  would  so  much  rather  think  that  they  have 
been  trying  to  poison  your  faith  !  It  is  so  much  more 
comforting  for  me  to  think  this  !  " 

A  moment  or  two  of  silence.  Was  he  going  to  break 
faith  with  Mrs.  Peters,  and  tell  her  the  truth  ?  I  was 
prepared  for  anything  after  her  easy  victory.  But  no  ; 
he  remembered  his  promise. 

"  Please  believe  that  no  one  is  to  be  blamed  except 
myself,"  he  made  serious-voiced  appeal.  "  And  now 
let  us  forget  all  about  it  and  talk  of  other  things.  You 
enjoyed  the  theatre  ?  I  hope  so.  I  hope  you  will  go 
again  very  soon.  It  is  a  shame  that  my  illness  should 
have  kept  you  in-doors.  You  know  how  little  I  like 
that  Flora  ;  but  her  advice  was  good  advice  for  once, 
certainly." 

It  was  a  perfect  reconciliation  before  they  parted. 
She  had  left  him,  and  I  sat  with  knit  brows,  pondering 
over  my  future  course,  when  his  steps  came  suddenly 
very  near  the  door  which  led  from  his  own  room  into 
mine.  Then  he  knocked  at  the  door  with  sharpness. 

"  Mrs.  Peters." 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  I  made  instant  reply. 

"Are  you  still  up  and  dressed  ?  " 

My  next  reply  was  to  open  the  door. 

He  lifted  an  imperative  hand,  forbidding  me  with 
the  gesture  from  crossing  his  threshold. 

"  You  have  heard  what  has  just  passed,  I  suppose." 

I  nodded  yes. 

"  Very  well.     I  have  only  this  to  say:  The  agree- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  45  { 

ment  between  us  still  remains  good.  I  tell  you  in  all 
candor,  however,  that  I  regret  having  made  it  and  that 
I  do  not  place  an  atom  of  faith  in  your  statements.  If 
you  desire  to  stay  here  a  week  longer,  do  so.  If  you 
wish  to  go  to-morrow,  go,  and  I  shall  willingly  release 
you  from  the  promise,  the  contract,  or  whatever  it  de- 
serves to  be  called." 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  go,"  was  my  firm  composed  an- 
swer. 

1 1  Then  remain — for  exactly  one  week."  His  words 
breathed,  through  every  syllable,  a  cold  austere  antipa- 
thy. "  I  merely  gave  you  your  chance  ;  that  is  all." 
Then,  with  eyes  that  brightened  angrily  :  "  You  are 
foolish  not  to  avail  yourself  of  it,  I  can't  help  adding  ; 
for  perhaps,  my  good  Mrs.  Peters,  you  are  playing  a 
more  dangerous  game  than  you  imagine."  After  that 
he  shut  the  door.  Shut  it  without  insulting  suddenness, 
but  with  a  certain  decisive  expedition. 

During  the  whole  of  to-day  he  has  spoken  to  me  only 
when  speech  was  necessary,  and  then  almost  in  mono- 
syllables. I  think  that  last  night's  developments  have 
had  a  weakening  effect  upon  him,  in  a  physical  way. 
He  is  so  far  on  the  road  to  absolute  recovery,  however, 
that  I  feel  my  first  blow  to  have  been  very  well-timed. 

John  Driscoll  and  I  have  had  another  whispered  con- 
fab in  the  hall.  I  began  by  telling  him  everything  that 
happened  last  night  and  imploring  his  help  in  the  work 
which  I  began  to  perform. 

"But  how  can  I  possibly  help  you,"  he  questioned, 
"  even  if  I  had  all  the  willingness  in  the  world  ?  " 

"  You  could  think  of  something"  I  pleaded,  flattering 
him  with  a  kind  of  melancholy  policy. 

"  I  can  think  of  absolutely  nothing,"  he  made  pro- 
nounced denial. 


452 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


lt  Recollect,"  I  persevered,  "  that  my  coming  here  at 
all  was  your  own  brilliant  idea.  Do  me  the  one  more 
great  service  of  going  home  and  thinking,  thinking, 
until  you  find  some  kind  of  a  plan.  I  will  tell  you  in- 
stantly whether  it  is  feasible  or  no,  just  as  I  did  before. 
Anyhow,  I  am  resolved  upon  one  desperate  course, 
provided  everything  else  fails." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  He  was  looking  at  me  with 
an  inquisitive  troubled  sort  of  pity  ;  much  as  though  he 
recognized  the  strong  probability  of  my  telling  him  that 
I  meant  to  burn  the  house  down  .and  as  though  such  a 
startling  announcement  had  quite  lost  the  power  of  doing 
more  than  make  him  feel  grimly  sorry. 

"  I  mean,  John  Driscoll,  there  is  a  chance  of  Fuller's 
believing  Helen  Dobell  where  he  might  not  believe 
Mrs.  Peters.  Should  I  find  all  other  plans  useless,  I 
could  simply  throw  off  my  wig  and  spectacles  and  swear, 
without  them,  that  this  abominable  woman  is  the  thing 
I  know  her  to  be." 

"  Then  you  would  act  with  much  mad  stupidity." 

"  I  don't  care.  If  you,  his  friend,  will  allow  his  sick- 
ening deception  to  continue  for  possibly  all  the  rest  of 
his  days — for  at  least  long  enough  to  have  him  cast  off 
by  mamma,  ruined  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  driven 
to  Heaven  knows  what  reckless  end  by  the  loss  of  posi- 
tion and  respectability,  then  I,  his  wife,  will  at  least 
make  a  last  desperate  trial  toward  saving  him,  slight 
reason  though  his  neglect  and  insult  have  ever  given  me 
to  mix  myself  at  all  in  his  concerns." 

-'And  will  not  save  him,  although  you  make  the 
trial." 

"  Perhaps  not.  But  I  shall  have  gotten  a  certain 
amount  of  satisfaction  from  the  attempt." 

He  gave  a  great  shoulder-shrug  and  dropped  his  head 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  453 

breastward  and  rambled  away  from  me,  passing  down- 
stairs. The  interview  had  not  given  me  a  shadow  of 
hope.  My  single  trump-card  has  been  played,  it  is 
true,  as  far  as  concerns  the  inducing  him  to  devise  some 
plan  ;  but  I  question  whether  that  card  is  a  very  power- 
ful one.  My  threats  are  growing  an  old  story,  doubtless 
he  thinks.  There  are  such  things  as  pushing  friendship  a 
tittle  or  so  too  far.  '  Besides,'  he  has  perhaps  been  tell- 
ing himself,  '  /am  not  likely  to  suffer  now  if  Helen  Do- 
bell  does  behave  like  a  fool  and  make  exertions  to  pub- 
lish the  whole  matter  before  the  world.  Let  her  act  as 
her  own  wild  wishes  dictate  ;  it  isn't  my  affair  any  longer.' 

Well,  perhaps  I  wrong  him;  perhaps  I  only  put  in 
exaggerated  colors  what  has  really  been  his  thought. 
It  is  hard  to  tell,  just  yet.  He  may  relent  and  help  me 
gloriously  :  who  knows  ? 

He  can  help  me  if  he  wishes ;  I  am  somehow  pos- 
sessed with  the  idea  that  he  can. 

A  day  of  my  stipulated  week  is  gone  already.  At 
present  I  am  wholly  idealess,  as  far  as  the  thinking  out 
of  any  scheme  is  concerned.  I  can  think  of  nothing  ;  at 
least  nothing  in  any  wise  adequate  to  the  dire  needs  of 
the  situation.  Sometimes,  when  I  get  pondering  upon 
how  Fuller  is  being  befooled  and  hoodwinked,  I  feel  noth- 
ing except  a  complete  frenzy  of  indignation  that  he  should 
play  the  Merlin  to  that  fiend's  Vivien,  or  that  I  should 
find  myself  impotent  to  tear  the  scales  from  his  eyes. 
But  indignation  is  quite  profitless.  A  few  hours  of  hard 
grave  thought  might  accomplish  far  more  sensible  results. 

If  I  wanted  to  revenge  myself  upon  him  how  superbly 
I  could  do  it  by  just  going  away  now  and  leaving  him 
in  the  clutches  of  that  hypocrite,  until  some  day  when 
he  learned  (as  I  believe  he  would  learn)  of  her  thorough 
baseness.  What  a  revenge  !  Why  don't  I  take  it  ? 


454  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Why  don't  I  punish  him  as  he  deserves  so  intensely  to 
be  punished  ? 

Ah,  what  right  have  I  to  treat  myself  as  though  I 
were  indeed  able  to  prescribe  punishment  or  dispense 
with  it,  like  any  prince  or  satrap  ?  Let  me  first  find  a 
means  of  showing  him  forgiveness  by  saving  him  from 
that  beautiful  monster :  after  that  I  can  put  on  airs, 
Diary,  and  talk  finely  to  you  about  which  of  my  two 
powers  I  shall  use. 

May  20. — Another  day  gone.  Edith  Everdell  glares 
at  me  with  a  curled  lip  whenever  she  can  get  a  good 
chance  to  do  so  and  not  be  seen  by  Fuller.  She  and 
Fuller  were  together  all  the  afternoon.  I  believe  that  he 
believes  in  her  firmlier  than  ever,  now. 

John  Driscoll  and  I  did  more  whispering  in  the  hall 
to-day.  Mamma  has  sent  through  him  a  keenly  urgent 
message  on  the  subject  of  my  immediate  return  home. 
She  has  recently  insisted  upon  knowing  my  precise  place 
of  residence,  and  on  hearing  it  has  expressed  immense 
horror.  It  was  a  slight  sop  to  Cerberus,  I  was  told, 
when  she  became  aware  that  I  would  certainly  leave 
my  present  whereabouts  in  less  than  a  week's  time. 

But  I  didn't  choose  to  waste  many  words  on  the 'mat- 
ter of  her  virtuous  disgust.  There  was  something  else, 
Diary,  that  I  preferred  infinitely  to  talk  about.  Not  so 
my  fellow- whisperer,  however.  I  am  afraid  that  neither 
threats  nor  persuasions  will  affect  him. 

Well,  my  threat  was  no  idle  subterfuge.  "  Fuller 
shall  know  the  real  truth  concerning  his  nurse,"  I  made 
firm  avowal,  just  before  we  separated,  "  unless  some 
other  means  are  found  of  supporting  my  charges." 

"  And  if  you  really  attempt  that  striking  little  melo- 
drama," he  replied,  "  why  feel  at  all  confident  that  it 
will  benefit  your  cause  ?  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  455 


( i 


I  don't  feel  at  all  confident.  But  any  sort  of  action 
will  be  better  than  mere  stagnant  neutrality." 

"  You  are  wrong  to  think  so." 

"  Perhaps.     But  I  am  resolved,  nevertheless." 

May  23. — Two  more  days  remain  to  me  after  this. 
I  take  back  all  the  unfair  suspicions  written  against 
John  Driscoll.  More  than  once  I  have  seen  him  look- 
ing at  me  with  perplexed  compassion  that  there  is  no 
misunderstanding.  From  his  soul  he  pities  me,  I  can't 
help  believing.  Dr.  Delmayne  made  a  short  visit  to 
his  patient  yesterday,  but  to-day  he  has  not  come. 
Doubtless  he  considers  further  visits  unnecessary.  My 
own  services  here  are  surely  no  longer  needed,  and  my 
position  has  grown  such  a  sinecure  as  to  be  right  em- 
barrassing. I  feel  sure  that  during  some  of  their  mur- 
mured conversations  together  (always  made  inaudible 
to  my  ears)  Edith  Everdell  has  advised  Fuller  to  dis- 
charge me.  Of  course  he  yearns  to  do  so,  and  is  merely 
kept  from  doing  so  by  a  sullen  haughty  respect  for  our 
agreement. 

Once  or  twice  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  possibly 
Dr.  Delmayne  might  be  of  help.  But  then  I  have  re- 
membered Fuller's  ill-hidden-dislike  of  this  man,  whose 
untiring  skill  and  attention  beyond  all  doubt  have  saved 
his  life ;  a  dislike  that  has  only  of  late  made  itself  evi- 
dent and  that  Edith  Everdell  has  certainly  roused  in 
him.  The  doctor  is  bold  enough  and  is  enough  my 
friend  to  give  me  most  fearless  support  ;  but  of  what 
real  profit  would  his  support  prove  ?  No  ;  in  three  days 
from  now  I  shall  have  to  fall  back,  I  suppose,  on  what 
John  Driscoll  calls  the  melodrama.  Well,  I  have  the 
requisite  courage  to  perform  it.  When  the  time  comes 
I  shall  simply  change  Mrs.  Peters  into  Helen  Dobell, 
and  with  all  the  eloquence  I  can  master  accuse  Edith 


456  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

Everdell  of  being  the  most  heartless  mixture  of  wicked- 
ness and  hypocrisy  which  nature  ever  devised.  Nor  am 
I  so  sure  that  my  avowal  will  be  so  free  from  after- 
results.  I  have  this  to  aid  me  in  the  destruction  of 
Fuller's  devout  faith  : — he  has  never  known  me  to  tell 
him  a  falsehood  ;  and  he  shall  have  the  thought  of  how 
I  came  to  him  in  that  awful  sickness,  for  an  evidence  of 
how  I  have  striven  forgivingly  to  serve  him  in  silent 
efficient  deeds.  Hereafter  he  must  think  of  my  mad 
masquerade  with  something  like  gratitude  and  respect ; 
and  the  more  he  thinks  of  this,  the  more  Edith  Ever- 
dell's  hold  upon  him  ought  imperceptibly  to  weaken. 

Of  course  the  melodrama  will  end  everything  between 
us  forevermore.  I  will  leave  the  house  after  having 
performed  it,  and  go  straight  home,  and  he  will  not 
dream  of  following  me.  But  I  shall  leave  behind  me 
(or  at  least  I  pray  Heaven  that  this  may  be  so)  an  influ- 
ence before  which  Edith  Everdell's  shall  eventually 
crumble.  And  yet  I  have  no  right  to  deal  so  confi- 
dently in  future  tenses  ;  for  I  do  not  feel  at  all  confi- 
dent of  any  success,  as  I  told  John  Driscoll  the  other 
day  ;  neither  success  immediate  nor  success  sudden.  I 
just  have  a  ray  or  two  of  hope  and  nothing  more.  And 
when  I  look  still  further  into  the  future,  ah,  how  voidly 
dreary  it  is  !  For  weeks  I  have  been  suffering  under 
the  stress  of  excitement.  For  years  to  come  I  must 
simply  suffer  as  ordinary  people  suffer,  dully,  coldly, 
eventlessly  !  The  battle  shall  have  ceased,  the  guns 
shall  all  have  grown  silent,  and  long  night  shall  have 
settled  on  the  battle-field  where  I  lie,  wounded  deeply 
and  thirsting  keenly.  Yes,  night  without  a  star.  Night 
of  such  opaque  blackness  that  the  blackness  of  death 
will  be  like  day  by  contrast ! 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

|A\  25. — At  the  last  moment  John  Driscoll  has 
consented  to  aid  me.  His  offer  came  with 
great  suddenness,  taking  me  intensely  by  sur- 
prise. He  had  been  holding  quite  a  long  conversation 
with  Fuller  in  Fuller's  room.  I  was  in  my  own.  I 
daresay  they  were  talking  of  private  personal  matters. 
Possibly  I  could  have  heard  what  they  were  talking 
about  if  I  had  chosen  to  eavesdrop  a  little.  I  chose  not 
to  eavesdrop  at  all. 

Rather  late  in  the  afternoon  he  left  Fuller's  room.  I 
softly  unclosed  that  door  of  my  own  which  leads  into 
the  hall  and  met  him  just  as  he  was  shutting  Fuller's 
door. 

"  To-morrow  the  week  expires,"  I  plunged,  in  cau- 
tious whisper. 

"I  supposed  so."  After  that  we  both  kept  silence 
for  some  little  while.  He  was  looking  straight  down 
into  my  face  with  those  suave-colored  hazel  eyes.  And 
something  about  his  own  face  somehow  made  my  cheeks 
flush  with  color,  made  my  hand  grasp  his  arm. 

"  You  have  an  idea,"  I  burst  forth.  "  You're  going 
to  help  me  !  " 

He  smiled  nothing  unless  a  melancholy  smile,  whilst 
nodding  yes. 
20 


458  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Oh,  I  was  sure  you  would,"  innocently  fibbed  I, 
believing,  in  my  sudden  enthusiasm,  that  I  was  speak- 
ing soundest  truth. 

Then  he  answered  with  as  much  solemnity  of  tone 
as  a  very  low  whisper  can  be  made  to  accommodate : 

"  I  was  not  sure  of  any  such  thing  until  only  a  little 
while  ago.  Indeed,  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  I 
could  do  nothing."  Here  he  gathered  his  brows  like 
one  through  whom  there  shoots  a  most  painful  thought. 
"  It  takes  all  my  nerve  even  to  think  of  what  I  am  going 
to  do.  And  I  can't  help  saying  that  I  don't  believe 
there  are  many  Damons  who  would  do  the  same  for 
many  Pythiases.  Fuller  Dobell  would  never  do  it 
forme." 

"  Perhaps  he  would  if  you  had  a  wife  to  implore  as  I 
have  implored." 

He  shook  his  head  in  pronounced  negative.  "  Not 
if  I  had  a  regiment  of  wives.  It  is  a  horribly  delicate 
matter.  It  may  lead  to  a  personal  quarrel  between  him 
and  me.  Whenever  I  think  about  it  at  all  I  seem  to  see 
all  my  worldly  wisdom  in  a  state  of  personification,  tell- 
ing me  that  I  am  making  a  great  fool  of  myself.  But  I 
mean  to  do  it  and  I  don't  mean  to  back  out  at  the  last 
moment.  Do  you  know  that  if  you  had  not  met  me  in 
the  hall  I  should  have  gone  and  knocked  at  your  door, 
running  the  risk  of  being  heard  by  Fuller  ?  " 

"  I  am  so  glad  to  hear  that  your  mind  is  so  firmly 
made  up.  Neither  Fuller  nor  I  deserve  your  goodness. 
And  now  for  the  plan  itself :  you  have  set  my  curiosity 
aching." 

He  shook  his  head  very  positively.  "  It  must  ache 
on  until  to-morrow." 

"  You  can't  mean  that  I'm  not  to  know  anything  till 
then  ?  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


459 


"  No,  I  don't  mean  precisely  that.  There  are  some 
instructions  which  I  must  give  you.  And  these  instruc- 
tions you  must  promise  to  obey." 

"  I  promise  that  they  shall  be  obeyed  to  the  letter. 
I  have  such  faith  in  you  that  I  promise  even  before 
hearing  them." 

"They  are  very  simple,"  he  explained.  "To-mor- 
row, let  us  say  at  precisely  eleven  o'clock,  A.M.,  you 
will  go  to  Fuller  and  tell  him  that  you  are  ready  to  show 
him  the  proof  of  your  charges.  Then  you  must  ask 
him  to  follow  you,  making  as  little  noise  as  possible. 
You  know  the  small  private  staircase  at  the  rear  end  of 
the  house?" 

"Yes." 

"/didn't  till  yesterday,  when  my  dark  plotting  made 
me  search  for  and  discover  one.  Well,  this  staircase 
leads  into  a  narrow  kind  of  butler's  hall  and  from  thence 
into  the  dining-room.  The  chances  are  decidedly  in 
favor  of  you  and  Fuller  reaching  the  dining-room  with- 
out being  heard  or  seen.  If  you  are  either  it  will  be 
unfortunate  ;  it  may,  indeed,  interfere  with  the  whole 
proceeding.  When  you  reach  the  dining-room  you 
vf\\\probably  (I  do  not  dare  say  '  surely  ')  find  the  folding- 
doors  which  lead  from  thence  into  the  second  parlor,  so 
arranged  that  one  may  look  through  a  slight  crevice 
between  them  and  run  little  risk  of  himself  being  seen. 
If  the  doors  are  so  arranged,  first  look  through  the 
crevice  yourself;  you  will  understand  instantly,  from 
what  you  see,  whether  Fuller  is  to  take  your  place.  If, 
however,  the  doors  should  be  tightly  closed,  then  do 
your  best  to  separate  them  ever  so  little  without  being 
heard.  If  they  should  be  wide  open,  use  the  utmost 
caution  in  trying  to  find  a  place  from  which  you  can 
see  without  much  immediate  danger  of  being  seen. 


460  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

And  in  all  cases  remember  to  be  as  utterly  noiseless  as 
possible  and  to  make  Fuller  the  same." 

"  I  understand.  Not  a  word  of  your  instructions  has 
been  lost  upon  me.  But  oh,  their  mystery  !  I  shall 
not  sleep  a  wink  this  night,  I  am  right  certain,  because 
of  trying  to  puzzle  it  out." 

He  smiled  a  dreary  little  smile.  "  I  can't  tell  you 
what  may  happen — and  simply  because  that  word 
'  may,'  by  the  bye,  has  to  be  used  in  speaking  of  the 
matter.  Perhaps  it  will  all  prove  a  failure  ;  I  should 
not  be  much  surprised  if  it  did.  Only,  be  sure  that  I 
will  bring  all  my  will  and  energy  to  bear  against  such  a 
consequence.  If  I  fail — " 

"  Pshaw,"  I  broke  in  ;  "  what  is  it  Richelieu  tells  the 
young  priest  ?  I'm  sure  that  the  word  isn't  in  the  lexi- 
con of  your  youth — not,  at  least,  when  you  choose  that 
it  shan't  be." 

"The  lexicon  of  my  youth  got  out  of  print  several 
years  ago,"  he  made  soft  objection.  "  But  we  have 
been  whispering  here  too  long  already.  I  wonder  that 
we  haven't  been  interrupted,  as  it  is.  By  the  bye,  have 
you  a  watch  ?  Yes  ?  Just  let  me  see  it,  please  ;  I 
want  to  compare  it  with  mine."  Then,  after  I  had 
handed  it  to  him  and.  he  had  made  the  comparison  : 
"There's  scarcely  a  minute  of  difference  between  them. 
Good-bye  ;  remember  to  begin  proceedings  at  eleven 
o'clock  precisely.  I  will  make  between  three  and  five 
minutes  of  allowance  for  your  coming.  "^ 

"And  you  will  not  tell  me  what  it  is  all  going  to 
be?"  I  questioned,  pleading-voiced.  "Think  of  my 
poor  maddened  curiosity." 

"  You  must  get  your  curiosity  a  straight-jacket,"  he 
smiled.  "  I  should  like  to  tell,  but  (to  speak  down- 
right truth)  I  should  need  at  least  two  brandys-and-soda 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  45  r 

before  the   necessary  bluntness,   bad   taste    and  brute 
courage  came  to  me." 

And  with  these  amazing  words  he  walked  away. 
Oh,  Diary,  is  there  any  use  in  adding  that  I  have  been 
on  sharpest  thorns  of  impatience  ever  since  ?  I  am 
glad  that  It  is  going  to  happen  at  eleven  o'clock.  If  It 
were  to  happen  an  hour  later,  I  verily  believe  that  un- 
gratified  curiosity  would  throw  me  into  nervous  convul- 
sions. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

| AY  28. — I  sit  in  my  own  room  in  my  own 
home  whilst  I  write  what  follows.  I  am  Mrs. 
Peters  no  longer. 

Let  me  begin  with  the  morning  of  the  twenty-sixth  ; 
the  morning  when  I  woke  up  with  the  certainty  that 
Fuller  would  make  his  demand. 

After  dressing  and  eating  the  breakfast  that  was 
brought  up  to  me,  I  found  that  it  was  a  little  past  nine 
o'clock.  Fuller  was  probably  ready  to  receive  me  if  I 
chose  to  enter  his  room.  Anyhow,  I  could  knock  and 
find  out. 

I  knocked  and  found  out.  He  pronounced  a  prompt 
but  rather  unpleasant  "  come-in,"  a  second  after  the 
summons. 

He  was  standing  in  the  centre  of  the  room  when  I  en- 
tered. The  remains  of  his  recent  breakfast  stood  near- 
by. He  looked  all  coldness,  hardness  and  gravity. 
The  instant  I  caught  sight  of  his  face  I  became  prepared 
for  the  words  which  he  immediately  spoke. 

"  Mrs.  Peters,  I  suppose  you  are  aware  that  your 
week  has  expired  ?  Do  you  come  to  tell  me  that  you 
are  going  to-day,  or —  ?  "  Then  he  paused,  lingeringly, 
fixing  keen  eyes  on  my  face,  as  though  he  rather  pre- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


463 


ferred  than  otherwise  that  I  should  interrupt  him,  right 
here. 

And  then  I  spoke.  "Mr.  Dobell,  I  have  come  to 
tell  you  that  I  am  prepared  to  substantiate  my  charges." 

He  started,  turned  faintly  paler,  then  smiled  a  quick 
sneering  smile  that  was  born,  I  well  saw,  of  his  over- 
weening confidence. 

"  Indeed  !  you  are  ready  to  substantiate  them  !  Let 
me  ask  how  ?  when  ?  and  where  ?  " 

"  At  present,"  I  gave  calm  answer,  "  I  can  only  reply 
to  your  second  question.  What  revelation  I  have  to 
make  will  take  place  at  eleven  o'clock  this  morning." 

"  Eleven  ?  "  he  laughed,  chillingly,  whilst  he  took  out 
his  watch.  "You  are  very  racily  mysterious,  it  must 
be  admitted.  Is  this  all  that  I  am  to  hear  just  yet  ?  " 

"Not  quite,"  I  returned,  tranquil  and  even-voiced. 
"  I  must  request  of  you  to  arrange,  if  possible,  that  you 
shall  be  alone  at  that  time.  I  will  then  pay  you  a  visit 
and  furthermore  request  that  you  will  go  with  me  some- 
where." 

He  laughed  almost  good-humoredly,  now.  Perhaps 
a  vague  amusing  doubt  crossed  him,  right  here,  on  the 
subject  of  my  complete  sanity.  "  The  plot  thickens,  as 
they  say  in  novels  and  plays.  Where  are  you  to  take 
me  ?  Down  into  a  dark  cellar  with  my  eyes  blindfold  ?  " 

"Not  precisely.  I  merely  want  you  to  go  a  very 
short  distance  with  me — not  out  of  the  house.  Will  you 
agree  to  arrange  that  you  shall  be  left  quite  alone  by  the 
hour  at  which  I  shall  want  you  ?  " 

"Certainly."  His  face  was  touched  with  scornful 
merriment. 

"  And  you  will  mention  to  no  one,  I  trust,  Mr.  Do- 
bell,  this  little  fresh  engagement  between  us  ?  " 

"  Absolutely  to  no  one  ;  "  (bowing  with  open  mock- 


464  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

ery  in  the  movement,  whilst  I  walked  slowly  doorward.) 
Then  I  went  back  into  my  own  room,  shutting  the 
door  between  us,  and  passed  there  a  good  hour  and 
three-quarters  in  momentary  dread  of  his  receiving 
either  a  visit  from  Dr.  Delmayne  or  Edith  Everdell : 
from  the  first  I  knew  that  a  visit  was  not  strongly  prob- 
able ;  from  the  last  it  was  something  that  might  at  any 
moment  occur,  unless  she  was  to  play  some  personal 
part  in  John  Driscoll's  revelations. 

But  no  one  entered  his  room  except  the  servant  who 
came  to  arrange  it  and  to  remove  his  finished  breakfast. 
And  during  that  period  of  waiting  I  sat  and  almost 
counted  the  minutes. 

At  last  the  time  had  come.  It  wanted  only  a  mo- 
ment or  two  of  eleven.  I  rose  and  looked  at  myself  in 
the  glass ;  Mrs.  Peters  was  a  .trifle  paler  than  usual. 
Then  I  knocked  at  Fuller's  door  and  was  promptly  told 
to  enter. 

He  sat  in  an  arm-chair,  reading.  "  Has  the  awful 
moment  arrived  ?  "  he  wanted  to  know,  laying  down  his 
book  as  I  approached.  "  I  wish  it  had  been  eleven 
o'clock  and  five  minutes  ;  the  lady  in  my  novel  here  is 
just  going  to  poison  her  husbaijd." 

He  was  nervous  in  spite  of  himself;  of  this  I  felt  cer- 
tain the  instant  that  I  heard  his  voice.  He  was  trying 
to  make  me — make  himself,  doubtless,  believe  that  his 
deep-rooted  faith  in  Edith  Everdell's  constancy  was  not 
to  be  shaken,  how  faintly  soever,  by  the  ambiguous  in- 
nuendoes of  a  rather  tiresome  old  woman  ;  and  whilst 
he  so  tried,  the  attempt  was  nearly  pure  failure.  A 
terrible  little  haunting  Perhaps  had  perched  itself  on  his 
shoulder  elfwise,  very  possibly,  and  was  whispering  its 
little  trenchant  probabilities  in  his  ear. 

For  myself,  I  felt  that  I  was  trembling  a  trifle  and  that 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  465 

my  cheeks  had  gotten  to  burn  a  trifle,  also.  But  I  was 
nervous  not  half  so  much  because  of  the  uncertainty  re- 
garding John  Driscoll's  design  as  because  of  a  fear  lest 
it  might  not  prove  practicable.  Such  a  trifling  circum- 
stance could  delay  me  in  the  keeping  of  that  odd  ap- 
pointment, now.  Then,  too,  John  Driscoll  had  himself 
cast  decided  doubt  upon  the  plan's  feasibility.  The 
hard  shell  of  Fuller's  bigoted  faith  and  trust  needed  a 
tremendous  telling  blow  to  shatter  it.  Had  we  the 
power  to  "strike  and  strongly,  and  one  stroke,"  after 
this  annihilating  fashion  ? 

I  quite  ignored  his  humorous  comment  upon  the 
homicidal  lady  in  his  novel.  "  I  am  ready  to  go  with 
you,  Mr.  Dobell,"  came  my  placid  response.  "  I  hope 
that  you  are  ready,  for  we  wish  to  lose  no  time." 

He  rose.  The  smile  that  just  rimmed  his  lips  con- 
trasted queerly  with  his  paleness.  "  Where  are  we 
going?" 

"  Only  downstairs  into  the  dining-room.  Please  fol- 
low me  ;  and  I  beg  of  you  to  make  as  little  noise  as 
possible  whilst  you  do  so."  As  I  finished  speaking  I 
opened  the  door  of  his  room  which  led  hallward.  The 
hall  was  quite  empty,  for  which  circumstance  I  offered 
Heaven  my  mute  thanks.  We  walked  to  its  further 
end,  Fuller  following  me  at  a  very  short  distance.  We 
gained  the  private  staircase  and  began  to  descend.  We 
reached  the  next  floor,  and  as  yet  there  had  been  no 
obstacle.  Only  a  slight  while  longer  of  untroubled  de- 
scent and  we  should  reach  the  dining-room  threshold. 
Suddenly  I  felt  myself  growing  weak  with  dread.  Noth- 
ing had  happened  yet,  but  would  not  something  happen 
presently  ?  Were  we  fated  to  arrive  unimpeded  at  the 
end  of  our  little  journey  ? 

Down,  down,  with  steps  slow,  stealthy,  almost  noise- 
20* 


466  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

less.  We  had  nearly  gained  the  narrow  hall  from 
which  the  dining-room  opens  off.  Was  nothing  going 
to  happen  ? 

No,  not  anything  in  the  way  of  molestation  was 
going  to  happen,  it  seemed.  We  stood  at  last  in  the 
small  hall  adjoining  the  dining-room.  The  door  was 
open.  Whilst  crossing  its  threshold  I  shot  one  rapid 
glance  at  the  folding-doors.  They  had  been  unclosed 
ever  so  slightly.  The  crevice  of  which  John  Driscoll 
had  spoken  had  evidently  been  effected. 

I  turned  and  made  a  sudden  gesture  that  told  Fuller 
to  remain  perfectly  still,  just  as  he  was  in  the  act  of 
following  me  across  the  threshold.  My  heart  had  be- 
gun to  pulsate  wildly  whilst  I  stole  toward  the  crevice 
in  the  folding-doors. 

With  infinite  caution  I  stole  nearer,  nearer.  Already 
I  heard  the  voice  of  Edith  Everdell,  not  loudly  raised 
and  yet  distinctly  audible  because  the  speaker  wras  so 
near  this  adjoining  room  in  which  I  stood. 

"  And  pray  what  made  you  think  that  I  never  cared 
for  you,  John  Driscoll  ?  How  wrong  you  have  been  ! 
oh,  how  very  wrong  !  " 

By  this  time  I  had  gained  a  clear  view  of  the  next 
room.  This  is  what  I  saw  there  : 

Edith  Everdell,  whose  back  was  nearly  opposite  the 
crevice  through  which  I  peered.  John  Driscoll,  whose 
eyes  were  fixed  upon  that  crevice,  plainly  seeing  it 
from  where  he  sat,  across  the  woman's  shoulder.  And 
upon  one  of  his  own  shoulders  her  beautiful  head  had 
fallen,  whilst  one  superb  loose-sleeved  arm  had  lifted  it- 
self toward  the  other. 

I  drew  back  then,  making  a  rapid  excited  motion  for 
Fuller  to  advance,  whilst  my  face,  I  am  right  sure,  wore 
an  almost  wild  look  of  triumph. 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


407 


He  came  hastily  forward,  then,  though  treading  with 
much  lightness.  I  stood  pointing  with  nervous  quickly- 
moving  forefinger. 

Oh,  the  intense  fervor  of  satisfaction  with  which  I 
saw  him  peer,  as  I  had  been  peering,  into  the  room  be- 
yond. 

I  was  too  much  behind  him  to  see  his  face.  He  stood 
still  as  stone,  after  that,  bending  forward  to  watch  and 
to  overhear. 

The  woman  was  speaking  again,  but  her  voice  had 
sunk  into  such  lowness  of  intonation  that  I  could  catch 
the  mere  murmur  and  nothing  more.  He  could  catch 
more  than  that,  however,  I  felt  certain.  And  better 
far,  he  could  see  clearly,  indubitably,  with  his  own  eyes  ! 

Presently  her  voice  ceased  and  John  Driscoll's  began. 
Then  his  ceasing,  hers  recommenced.  Then  hers 
again  ;  then  his  ;  then  hers  again  for  a  longer  time  than 
either  had  yet  spoken. 

And  at  last  the  doors  were  slid  violently  asunder. 
After  so  sliding  them  Fuller  rushed  into  the  next 
room.  I  did  not  follow  him  :  there  was  no  use  in  my 
following  him  ;  I  could  see  and  hear  all  that  passed 
quite  perfectly,  now. 

And  I  waited  to  hear  too  much.  He  addressed  a 
horrible  fiery  outburst  toward  Edith  Everdell,-who 
stood  staring  at  him  with  ashen  face  whilst  his  pell-mell 
sentences  of  accusation  were  poured  upon  her.  Heav- 
en forgive  him,  he  spoke  with  frightful  fury  !  I  shan't 
write  down  a  word  of  what  he  said,  Diary.  Better  that 
1  should  even,  if  possible,  blot  it  out  from  my  memory  ! 

As  the  tirade  was  spending  itself,  John  Driscoll,  with 
ghastly  face  and  the  look  of  a  man  who  suffers  keenest 
shame,  slipped  from  the  room  by  sudden  exit  through 
a  side-door.  I  dashed  out  of  the  dining-room,  then, 


468  PURPLE  AND  FINE   LINEN. 

by  the  door  through  which  Fuller  and  I  had  lately  en- 
tered it,  and  sped  through  the  narrow  hall  into  the 
larger  and  longer  one  beyond. 

He  had  on  his  hat,  and  his  hand  was  on  the  knob  of  the 
street-door  when  I  hurried  up  to  him.  "  Oh,  thanks  ! 
thanks  ! "  I  burst  forth  ;  and  then  the  drawn  sickened 
look' upon  his  face  froze  me  into  instant  silence. 

"  You  see,  I  am  running  away  from  him."  he  ex- 
claimed, with  a  bitter  laugh.  "  Running  away,  like  a 
coward  !  "  And  then  he  opened  the  door. 

"  You  are  not  a  coward,  John  Driscoll !  Go  at  once, 
but  no  one  except  a  fool  could  call  you  so."  And  I 
pushed  him  through  the  opened  door,  closing  it  sharply, 
just  as  Fuller's  voice,  the  name  of  John  Driscoll  loud 
upon  his  lips,  called  from  where  we  had  left  him. 

And  then  I  hurried  upstairs  at  fleetest  speed  to  my 
own  room  on  the  third  floor.  In  the  second  hall  I  met 
Margaret,  who  stared  at  me  amazedly  as  I  darted  past 
her. 

Once  in  my  own  room,  the  first  thing  that  I  did,  after 
closing  the  door,  was  to  take  off  those  detested  specta- 
cles. This  action  was  the  result  of  habit,  doubtless. 
Ever  since  the  first  day  I  entered  that  house  I  have  al- 
ways un-spectacled  myself,  changed  my  bottle-green 
range  of  vision  into  something  less  abnormal,  the  instant 
that  I  have  found  myself  alone. 

After  that  I  stood  with  locked  hands,  wondering  what 
I  had  best  do.  There  was  surely  no  reason  for  me  to 
remain  in  the  house  a  moment  longer,  now,  than  I 
could  possibly  help.  Let  me  at  onoe  make  preparations 
to  leave  it.  Never  mind  my  portemanteau  and  the 
clothes  ;  never  mind  if  I  didn't  ever  see  these  again  ; 
they  would  pay  the  price  of  my  sweet  triumph. 

All  that  I  wanted  was  bonnet  and  shawl.     I  hurried 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  469 

to  my  closet,  unlocked  it  and  found  these.  Just  as  I 
was  laying  them  on  the  bed,  steps  sounded  in  the  out- 
side hall — steps  hasty  and  heavy,  that  could  belong  to 
nobody  except  Fuller.  A  moment  later  I  heard  him 
hurry  into  his  own  room.  Then  I  heard  him  walk 
rapidly  here  and  there.  And  then,  without  giving  me 
more  than  a  second  of  warning,  he  opened  my  door  and 
shouted  out  in  harsh  hard  tones,  on  discovering  me  : 

"  Do  you  know  if  my  hat  is  here  ?  " 

Doubtless  if  he  had  given  me  more  warning  of  his 
approach  I  should  not  have  remembered  to  replace  my 
spectacles.  As  it  was,  his  own  wildly  wrought-up  con- 
dition prevented  him  from  noticing  their  absence. 

I  remembered  instantly  that  his  hat  was  in  a  certain 
closet  of  his  room  and  hurried  to  get  it.  As  I  handed 
it  to  him  he  did  not  even  glance  at  me,  just  snatching  it 
from  my  hand  and  then  rushing  out  of  the  room. 

I  went  back  to  my  own  room.  A  few  moments  later 
I  heard  the  street-door  clang  loudly.  And  on  hearing 
this  sound,  I  hurried  to  my  already-open  window  and 
looked  pavementward  through  the  drawn  blinds.  Yes  ; 
it  was  he  who  had  just  left  the  house.  Left  it,  perhaps, 
forever.  I  could  not  doubt,  thank  Heaven,  that  he  had 
left  it  and  its  vile  mistress  forever  ! 

And  now  I  myself  must  leave  it  with  all  available 
haste.  And  so  I  began  as  fleet  a  toilette  as  I  knew  how 
to  make. 

Very  foolishly  I  stopped  to  change  the  light  shoes  I 
wore  for  a  pair  of  thicker  walking-boots.  Perhaps  if  it 
had  not  been  for  this  delay  what  happened  would  not 
have  happened.  For  after  having  finished  this  part  ot 
my  preparations  I  had  just  taken  off  my  cap,  when  the 
door  leading  from  the  hall  was  abruptly  opened  and  in 
swept  Edith  Everdell. 


470 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


Her  face  was  ghostlike  in  its  severe  pallor,  though 
whether  from  present  rage  or  from  recent  terror  I  was 
not  at  first  sure.  But  after  she  had  stood  glaring  at  me 
for  a  moment  I  read  in  the  firm  straightened  line  of  her 
close-shut  lips  and  in  the  austere  poise  of  her  back-flung 
head  and  in  the  quivering  curve  of  her  nostril's  pink 
delicacy,  a  Jury  that  was  physically  sublime  to  look 
upon. 

And  so  she  glared  upon  me,  caught  capless  and 
spectacleless,  for  what  seemed  a  good  minute. 

Then  at  last  she  found  a  choked  rageful  voice  ;  a  voice 
that  made  me  remember  her  in  that  other  fierce  fury  at 
the  opera-ball. 

"  You  helped  John  Driscoll  in  his  beastly  plot  against 
me.  Don't  dare  to  lie  out  of  it  and  say  you  didn't.  I 
saw  you  standing  there  in  the  next  room  whilst  I  was 
being  stormed  at."  And  now  she  lessened  the  distance 
between  us  by  two  or  three  quick  strides.  "  Flora  was 
right  enough,  and  Margaret  was  right  enough,  when 
they  both  assured  me  that  you  were  a  spy.  Now  tell 
me  who  sent  you  here." 

Her  hot.  eyes  were  devouring  my  face.  I  expected 
every  moment  that  she  would  lift  her  hand  and  strike 
me  a  blow.  Indeed,  I  waited  for  it  to  come,  with  a  kind 
of  chilled  passiveness. 

"  Tell  me  who  sent  you  here  !  "  she  shouted,  her  face, 
in  its  splendid  rage,  almost  within  an  inch  of  mine. 
"  I  will  know  the  real  truth  about  you  !  You're  no 
common  nurse  ;  you're  no  mere  paid  spy.  Was  it  Dr. 
Delmayne  who  got  you  to  come  ?  or  John  Driscoll  ? 
or  was  it  Fuller  Dobell's  wi ?" 

The  word  seemed  to  die  on  her  lips.  .  Abruptly  heo* 
beautiful  brows  gathered  themselves  in  a  dark  perplexed 
frown.  She  drew  back  for  a  second,  her  stare  intensi- 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  47!   ^ 

fied  and  both  hands  lifted  momentarily  in  a  slow  gesture 
of  amazement.  And  then  one  of  those  hands  suddenly, 
with  a  rapid  violent  force,  shot  out  toward  my  forehead 
and  pushed  back  from  it  the  grey  disguise  of  the  wig ; 
pushed  it  far  enough  back  to  let  the  blond  hair  escape 
from  its  ambush  beneath.  Far  enough  to  change  Mrs. 
Peters  into  Mrs.  Dobell. 

I  think  that  nearly  another  good  minute  passed,  after 
that,  whilst  we  two  stood  and  stared  at  each  other. 

She  broke  the  silence  at  last,  with  a  shrill  caustic 
laugh.  And  straightway  after  this  sound  had  left  her 
lips,  she  came  quite  near  me  again,  having  both  hands 
clinched  very  tightly  in  two  white  knots  at  either  side. 

She  had  somehow  forced  herself  into  a  kind  of  sneer- 
ing composure.  "  You  have  played  a  bold  game,  my 
clever  young  woman,  and  as  far  as  it  goes  a  successful 
one.  As  far  as  it  goes  ;  "  (ending  this  repeated  sentence 
Avith  a  sharp  long  respiration.)  "  Now  comes  my  turn." 

"You  mean  to  kill  me,  perhaps,"  I  managed  here, 
with  a  faint  nervous  ghost  of  a  laugh.  "  You  are  quite 
capable  of  it,  I  should  suppose.  You  are  doubtless 
strong  enough ;  and  wicked  enough,  surely.  But  re- 
member, please,  that  the  law  would  be  apt  to  punish 
such  a  little  imprudent  burst  of  temper ;  "  (whilst  I 
laughed  the  laugh  again,  faintlier,  more  nervously.) 

"  No,  I  am  not  going  to  attempt  anything  half  so 
silly,  if  you've  no  objection.  This  is  what  I  mean  to 
do."  Her  breath  broke  hotly  against  my  cheek.  "I 
mean  to  make  the  world  know  where  you  have  been — 
you,  Mrs.  Fuller  Dobell,  for  weeks  past.  I  mean  that 
before  you  leave  this  house  of  mine  all  New  York  shall 
ring  with  the  story  of  your  being  here.  I  have  power 
to  publish  everywhere  the  story  of  your  presence  under 
my  roof,  and  to  garnish  it  nicely  with  certain  plausible 


472  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

details  that  shall  make  your  fine  high-toned  associates 
lift  their  eyebrows  when  they  hear  it.  Your  bonnet  is 
on  the  bed  yonder,  but  you  will  not  need  it,  madam, 
for  several  days  to  come.  We  shan't  separate,  you  and 
I,  till  I  have  taught  you  a  rather  wholesome  lesson ; 
taught  you  that  when  we  handle  pitch  so  confidently  we 
now  and  then  run  a  fair  chance  of  soiling  our  fingers. 
Do  you  quite  understand  me  ?  Perhaps  you  don't,  just 
yet,  but  before  long  you  will  have  done  so,  I  fancy,  to 
your  own  dear  cost !  " 

She  was  finishing  this  last  sentence  when,  with  all  the 
suddenness  of  an  inspiration,  a  recollection  crossed  my 
brain.  Yes,  it  must  have  been  sheer  inspiration  and 
nothing  more  that  made  me  remember  such  a  thing  at 
such  a  time.  And  to  remember  it  then  was  just  as 
though  someone  had  rushed  forward  with  a  stout 
weapon  for  my  defenceless  hand. 

I  was  about  to  speak  rapidly  and  excitedly,  at  first ; 
but  a  second  of  thought  made  me  control  the  strong 
impulse.  Each  of  my  words,  as  I  pronounced  it,  fell 
measuredly  tranquil. 

"  I  learned  some  time  ago,  Mrs.  Everdell,  that  you 
have  a  daughter  whom  you  have  seen  fit  to  place  at  a 
most  respectable  school  here  in  New  York,  as  boarding- 
pupil." 

Then  I  watched  the  effect  of  my  words  before  I  went 
further. 

She  started  back  as  though  a  snake  had  stung  her. 
Every  gleam  of  anger  dwindled  from  her  face  and  left 
there  a  wild  alarm  in  its  stead.  So  far  so  good. 

"The  name  by  which  your  daughter  is  known,  I  be- 
lieve, is  Adele  Tremaine,  and  the  school  at  which  she 
boards  is  kept  by  a  certain  Madame  Langlois.  You 
will  not,  I  suppose,  presume  to  deny  these  facts  ?  " 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


473 


She  made  no  answer.  She  stood  the  picture  of  abject 
terror,  with  one  hand  pressed  against  her  heart.  I  had 
not  dared  to  expect  a  change  like  this,  so  sudden,  so 
intense,  so  radical. 

"  Madame  Langlois  and  myself  are  the  best  of 
friends,"  I  progressed,  with  loudening  voice  yet  with 
severest  manner.  "  Indeed,  I  was  her  pupil  for  several 
years  of  my  girlhood.  A  few  months  ago  she  paid  me 
a  visit  and  spoke  of  Miss  Adele  Tremaine  as  the  beauty 
of  her  school,  begging  as  a  sort  of  special  favor  that  I 
would  call  and  see  her.  I  did  not  know,  then,  a  word 
regarding. this  pupil's  parentage.  I  was  as  ignorant  of 
it  as  was  Madame  herself.  The  truth  has  since  reached 
my  ears." 

After  that  I  kept  silence  for  a  little  space.  She  had 
closed  her  eyes  like  one  whom  some  great  unnerving 
faintness  overpowers.  But  presently,  just  as  I  was  on 
the  point  of  mercilessly  continuing,  the  long  gold  lashes 
lifted  themselves  and  one  dull  flash  shot  from  the  won- 
derful eyes. 

"  Well  ?     Admit  that  I  admit  all  this." 

Then  I  went  on:  "  It  is  possibly  to  your  interest 
that  this  daughter  of  yours  shall  continue  at  Madame 
Langlois'  school :  that  the  world  at  large  shall  remain 
as  ignorant  as  it  now  is  concerning  her  real  name  and 
birth  ;  that  no  mischievous  tongue  shall  gossip  about 
certain  unpleasant  truths  ;  that  the  sins  of  the  parent 
shall  not  be  visited  upon  the  child  ;  that  she  shall  grow 
up  without  knowledge  or  suspicion  of  her  origin  and 
antecedents ;  that,  more  briefly,  I  shall  keep  silence  re- 
garding what  I  know.  And  let  me  add,  the  person 
who  gave  me  my  information  is  one  from  whom  you 
have  not  the  least  reason  to  dread  the  least  attempt  at 
any  exposure." 


474  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

And  now  as  I  again  paused  she  again  found  voice, 
speaking  this  time  with  a  rough  husky  energy  of  tone. 

"  You  have  this  knowledge  and  mean  to  use  it,  I 
suppose,  at  your  earliest  chance." 

"I  shall  not  use  it  if  you  allow  me  to  leave  your 
house  and  agree  to  keep  a  profound  secret  the  fact  of 
my  residence  here." 

A  look  of  unspeakable  relief  spread  itself  over  that 
alarmed  colorless  face.  And  yet, 

"Provided  you  make  me  such  a  promise,"  she 
doubted,  "what  reason  have  I  for  believing  that  you 
will  respect  it  when  you  are  once  gone  ?  " 

Eying  her  steadfastly,  I  made  answer  : 

"Silence  for  silence,  Mrs.  Everdell.  Do  not  let  us 
promise  at  all,  if  you  discredit  my  trustworthiness. 
Let  it  be  simply  a  politic  armistice  between  you  and 
me.  Our  forces  are  about  equal,  I  think.  If  you  vio- 
late the  contract  by  discharging  a  gun,  I  shall  take  a  like 
course.  Meanwhile  a  regard  for  personal  safety  ought 
mutually  to  keep  us  from  opening  fire.  Don't  you 
think  so  ?  " 

"Yes."  Her  face  had  gotten  a  certain  hardness 
again.  "You  may  go.  You  have  conquered.  You 
are  a  great  woman  in  your  way ;  do  you  know  it  ?  " 
(whilst  every  word  had  a  sullen  unwilling  ring,  as 
though  it  was  forced  from  her  by  some  extraneous  in- 
fluence.) "You  are  worth  twenty  Fuller  Dobells. 
And  I'm  glad  that  such  a  brave  strange  splendid  creat- 
ure as  you  should  have  beaten  me,  rather  than  some 
namby-pamby  nonentity.  Do  you  know,  it  only 
makes  me  think  men  are  greater  geese  and  idiots  than 
I  before  thought  them,  when  I  see  one  having  his  san- 
ity about  him  treating  you  with  Fuller  Dobell's  brutish- 
ness  ?  " 


PUkPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


475 


After  that  she  swept  doorward,  pausing  with  her 
hand  on  the  door's  knob.  "  I  will  have  your  trunk 
sent  after  you,  Mrs.  Peters ;"  (whilst  smiling  a  brilliant 
broad  ironic  smile)  "  provided,  that  is,  you  choose  to 
trust  me.  I  know  your  address." 

After  I  had  returned  a  prompt  "  very  well,"  she  left 
the  room  without  another  word. 

Brave  strange  splendid  creature,  indeed !  Would 
she  not  have  reversed  her  opinion  if  she  had  seen  me, 
a  little  later,  kneeling  down  by  the  bedside  and  thank- 
ing God  with  streaming  eyes  and  passionate  outflung 
arms,  both  for  Fuller's  deliverance  and  my  own  ? 
Surely  there  was  enough  weakness  about  me  then  ! 


CHAPTER  THE  LAST. 

]Y  about  one  o'clock  that  same  day  a  certain  fe- 
male, closely  veiled,  rang  the  bell  at  Mrs. 
Jeffreys'  door  in  Fifth  Avenue. 

The  closely-veiled  female  was  I.  As  Henry  let  me 
in  I  threw  up  my  veil.  I  was  a  dreadful  shock  to  poor 
Henry,  but  he  met  me  superbly,  after  the  first  momen- 
tary falling  of  his  jaw  and  saucerlike  enlargement  of  his 
eyes.  No  more  perfect  atonement  could  be  made  for 
this  loss  of  official  self-possession  than  the  grand  grave 
bow  which  immediately  followed,  and  the  low-murmured 
"  Welcome  home,  ma'am." 

Was  mamma  at  home  ?  straightway  I  wanted  to 
know,  with  as  much  off-handedness  as  I  could  at  all 
master. 

Yes  ;  Mrs.  Jeffreys  was  at  present  upstairs  with  Mr. 
Dobell. 

"  Mr.  Dobell  !  "  I  iterated.     "  When  did  he  arrive  ?  " 

"  About  three  quarters  of  an  hour  ago,  ma'am,  I 
think." 

I  moved  toward  the  reception-room.  "  Tell  mamma, 
please,  that  I  am  here "  (pointing  through  the  open 
doorway)  "  and  shall  be  glad  to  see  her  whenever  it  is 
convenient." 

I  waited  perhaps  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  mamma 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  L.INEN.  477 

came  down  to  see  me.  There  was  a  mutual  taking  of 
hands  ;  there  was  also  a  kind  of  mutual  kissing  gone 
through  with,  little  except  the  extremest  tips  of  lips 
being  called  upon  to  do  service  during  the  ceremony. 

Then  mamma  seated  herself  and  stared  at  me  with 
much  grandeur  of  woebegone  disapproval ;  decidedly 
as  though  the  plump  grey  puffs  at  her  temples  were  jus- 
tified in  laying  at  my  undutiful  door  several  shades  of 
their  greyness.  I  also  sat  down. 

"  Helen,  you  have  been  to  me  for  weeks  past  a 
source  of  incessant  anxiety,"  she  began,  in  lugubrious 
monotone  ;  "  and  the  number  of  gross  untruths  which 
you  have  compelled  me  to  tell  among  inquiring  friends 
would  make  you  shudder  if  you  should  hear  it.  But  I 
do  not  positively  think  that  I  could  have  endured  for 
such  a  long  period  the  knowledge  of  where  you  had 
really  been  hiding.  It  is  a  mercy  that  John  Driscoll 
kept  me  deceived  until  the  other  day. "  After  that  there 
was  heaved  a  gigantic  sigh. 

"  You  have  just  been  seeing  Fuller,"  I  changed  the 
subject,  rather  curtly. 

"  Yes.  He  came  into  the  house  about  an  hour  ago. 
It  was  so  absurd.  Here  I  have  told  people  so  many 
brazen  falsehoods  about  your  both  being  out  West  to- 
gether that  I  have  almost  gotten  to  believe  my  own  fic- 
tion ;  and  now  Fuller  returns  from  weeks  of  residence 
in  the  same  house  with  you  and  asks  me  where  you 
are." 

"  And  pray  what  did  you  tell  him  ?  " 

"The  truth,  I  am  so  tired  of  telling  nothing  but 
falsehoods." 

I  had  started  up  from  my  chair,  by  this,  and  was  bit- 
ing my  lips  in  a  passionate  baffled  way. 

"  What  did  you  tell  him  for  ?  "  I  cried  out,  peevishly, 


478  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  Wasn't  it  enough  humiliation  that  my  love  took  me 
there,  without  having  him  know  it  ?  " 

"  I  thank  God,  Helen  Dobell,  that  I  do  know  it," 
murmured  a  man's  deep  voice  behind  me  ;  and  I  turned 
round,  with  a  little  bewildered  cry,  to  find  myself  facing 
Fuller. 

Instantly  mamma  rose  up  and  slipped  from  the  room, 
shutting  the  door  after  her  with  a  noiseless  expedition. 

He  was  very  pale — almost  as  pale  as  during  the  dan- 
gerous days  of  his  sickness  ;  but  his  blue  eyes  were 
luminous  as  I  had  never  seen  the  fire  of  fever  make 
them. 

"  Your  mother  has  told  me  the  real  truth  about — 
about  who  Mrs.  Peters  was,"  his  slow  unsteady  voice 
commenced.  "  At  first  I  would  not  believe.  Then  I 
believed  her  and  was  angry  at  you.  Then  I  felt  like 
hating  myself  for  being  anything  but  very  very  grate- 
ful." Here  his  tones  grew  much  steadier  :  "  You  have 
removed  from  me  a  great  curse ;  you  and  John  Dris- 
coll." 

Then  I  broke  in,  with  floorward  eyes.  "  I  am  so  glad 
that  you  understand  the  real  part  that  John  Driscoll 
played." 

"  I  did  not,  at  first.     I  begin  to  understand  it  now." 

At  this  I  raised  my  eyes,  speaking  eagerly.  "  I 
don't  think  any  man  ever  had  a  tougher  struggle  with 
himself  in  the  doing  a  service  for  any  friend.  I  used  to 
beg  him,  day  after  day,  to  try  and  find  some  means  of 
showing  you  what  a  wretch  that  creature  was  ;  and  at 
length  he  consented." 

Whilst  I  spoke  this  last  sentence  his  face  clouded  as 
with  most  bitter  memories — clouded  as  a  man's  face  will 
do  when  he  sees,  in  agonizing  retrospect,  how  he  has 
been 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

"  The  ball  of  time, 
Bandied  by  the  hands  of  fools." 


479 


He  had  drooped  his  head  and  was  staring  down  at  the 
carpet.  I  walked  toward  the  window  and  looked  out 
through  its  half-shut  blinds  at  the  Avenue,  pleasant  in 
the  balmy  May  weather  and  filled  with  many  passers. 

I  had  stood  like  this  for  ^ome  little  time  before  he 
spoke  again.  "  It  would  be  simple  absurdity  for  me  to 
ask  your  pardon  now,  Helen,  when  I  did  not  do  so  long 
before  my  knowledge  of  that  woman's  beastliness,  at  a 
time  when  my  association  with  her  was  just  the  same 
insult  to  yourself  as  it  would  be  at  present." 

"  You  are  very  right.  It  would  be  simple  absurdity. 
I  do  not  wish  you  to  ask  for  my  pardon.  I  saved  you 
from  that  woman's  further  hypocrisies  not  because  I 
hoped  for  so  paltry  and  trifling  a  triumph."  And  then 
I  laughed  with  low  bitterness.  "It  is  quite  an  easy 
thing  to  cry  mea  culpa  after  all  cause  of  temptation  has 
been  removed." 

"But  you  will  at  least  take  my  thanks,  Helen  ! — my 
heartfelt  and  intense  thanks  !  "  He  had  drawn  much 
nearer  to  where  I  stood,  by  this,  and  his  words  came 
richly  resonant.  "  I  don't  mean  only  for  what  you  did 
in  showing  me  the  real  worthlessness  of  that  woman ; 
I  mean  for  your  laborious  and  self-sacrificing  hours  at 
my  bedside." 

And  then  our  eyes  somehow  met,  though  until  then 
I  had  made  my  own  stare  stubbornly  at  a  little  bronze 
Terpsichore  who  was  doing  her  perpetual  metallic  pi- 
rouette on  a  bracket  against  the  opposite  wall.  Fuller's 
head  swayed  ever  so  faintly  from  side  to  side,  as  if  his 
brain  were  in  a  mist  of  perplexity,  whilst  he  went  on, 
rapid-toned,  eagerly  emphatic? 

"  And  for  Heaven's  sake,  Helen,  what  made  you  be- 


480  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

have  as  you  did  ?  How  is  it  that  you  only  grew  the 
whiter  angel  as  I  grew  the  blacker  devil  ?  " 

"Oh,  Fuller!    Hush!" 

"  It  is  true,  and  you  know  it  right  well.  I  gave  you 
every  reason  to  loathe  and  despise  me.  I  married 
you — " 

"  For  money,"  I  finished,  firmly,  as  he  paused. 
"  Don't  feel  afraid  of  wounding  me  by  t/iats  tatement ; 
it  may  have  had  power  to  cut  very  keenly  once,  but  the 
edge  is  a  little  dulled  now.  You  married  me  for 
money ;  you  acted  toward  me  a  most  grossly  deceitful 
part  during  that  whole  falsehood,  your  courtship  ;  you 
did  what  it  makes  me  shudder  to  look  back  upon  ; — and 
yet  I  am  merciful  and  tell  you  with  all  candor  that  you 
have  not  been  to  blame.  I  know  the  role  of  temptress 
that  mamma  took  in  those  .days ;  I  have  since  learned 
about  it." 

"  Your  mother  spread  snares  for  me,  I  admit,"  he 
answered,  stern-voiced  in  his  self-condemnation,  "  but 
if  I  hadn't  chosen  to  be  a  fool  and  a  knave  as  well,  I 
need  not  have  fallen  into  them.  No,  no,"  he  went  on, 
with  loudening  tones  ;  "the  real  secret  of  it  all  was  be- 
cause I  believed  that  I  was  marrying,  when  I  married 
you,  a  woman  who  would  ultimately  take  the  matri- 
monial shape  and  color  of  the  circles  in  which  she 
moved.  I  thought  you  possessed  of  little  character, 
little  energy,  little  real  womanliness.  I  woke  up,  very 
soon,  to  the  fact  that  you  were  a  spirited  high-strung 
creature,  with  an  intellect  greater  than  my  own  and  a 
sense  of  justice  far  too  keen  for  a  man  in  my  peculiar 
moral  position  conveniently  to  pay  it  much  respect. 
What  was  the  result  of  this  discovery,  Helen  ?  I  did 
not  tell  myself  that  I  owed  you,  in  the  name  of  common 
humanity,  the  exact  reverse  of  what  I  had  designed  to 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN.  481 

give.  I  shut  both  ears  to  the  eloquent  appeal  of  your 
silent  unmistakable  love.  You  were  the  pearl  cast  be- 
fore me,  the  swine  ;  or  rather  you  might  have  been  an 
almost  holy  refuge  for  me,  placed  directly  in  the  mad 
path  of  my  own  selfishness,  but  that  I  chose  to  make 
you  a  stumbling-block,  and  .cursed  myself  that  I  had 
ever  married  at  alj.  and  tried  to  persuade  myself  that  I 
hated  you  because  you  were  not  willing  to  live  with  me 
and  be  outraged  by  my  infidelity.  Please  believe  that 
these  are  no  sudden  convictions.  Even  before  my  sick- 
ness I  thought  as  I  think  now  ;  and  during  my  sickness 
I  have  often  felt  such  thoughts  burned  into  my  brain  by 
the  hot  iron  which  conscience  sometimes  uses  for  a 
brand." 

His  last  sentence  drove  the  red  color  to  my  cheeks 
and  made  my  eyes  sparkle. 

"  Remember,  please,  that  I  was  Mrs.  Peters  all  that 
time.  I  had  opportunities  of  seeing  to  what  extent 
conscience  made  you  suffer."  And  here  my  voice  gave 
way  and  the  tears  besieged  my  eyes.  "  Did  you  give 
that  woman  one  kiss  the  less,"  I  began  to  sob,  "  be- 
cause of  these  fine  conscientious  feelings  ?  " 

"  Not  one,"  he  cried  out  boldly,  his  face  almost  livid. 
"Practical  repentance  is  one  thing;  in  theory  it  is 
quite  another.  They  say  that  confirmed  drunkards 
make  the  best  temperance-lecturers.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  what  you  and  John  Driscoll  forced  me  to  see  this 
morning,  I  should  have  gone  on  believing  implicitly  in 
Edith  Everdell's  perfect  fidelity.  And  whilst  I  so  be- 
lieved I  should  also  have  continued,  very  certainly,  the 
same  terms  on  which  we  have  stood  together  for  years 
past.  Without  the  blow  of  to-day's  discovery,  or  the 
blow  of  death  itself,  I  could  not  have  rid  myself  from 
her  influence.  I  tell  you  this,  Helen,  because  anything 
21 


482  PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 

like  a  misunderstanding  between  us  is  now  horrible  to 
me.  I  must  have  loved  her  and  clung  to  her  till  the 
last,  so  long  as  I  believed  what  I  once  believed." 

I  had  sunk  down  upon  the  lounge,  now,  and  was  dry- 
ing my  eyes.  "  Do  you  suppose  that  this  is  any  news 
to  me  ?  "  I  asked,  brokenly. 

He  had  seated  himself  at  my  side  all  on  a  sudden  and 
had  gotten  one  of  my  hands  in  his.  "  No.  I  am  sure 
it  is  not  any  news  to  you  unless  you  are  a  little  surprised 
that  I  should  not  be  a  coward  and  should  not  withhold 
the  confession  I  have  just  made.  But  Helen,  there  is 
something  more  that  I  want  to  say." 

I  do  not  ask  him  what  it  is.  I  simply  make  my  hand 
dead  passive  in  his  hold  and  fix  blank  eyes  on  the  op- 
posite wall. 

"  It  is  not  much,"  he  presently  begins,  his  voice  and 
words  right  low,  right  slow.  "  I  think  I  have  said  too 
much  already — or  too  little.  That  is  always  the  way 
with  talking  at  all,  I  am  getting  to  think :  one  either 
says  too  much  or  too  little.  But  there  is  something 
more  that  I  must  say,  and  it  is  just  this  :  Provided  you 
let  me,  I  am  going  to  devote  all  the  rest  of  my  life  to 
scarcely  anything  else  (will  you  overlook  the  mild  exag- 
geration ?)  except  two  stated  tasks.  One  is  the  trying 
to  absolve  myself  in  your  eyes  for  the  shameful  deeds  I 
have  committed  since  that  day,  so  short  a  while  ago, 
when  I  vowed  to  love,  to  cherish  and  to  protect  you." 

I  burst  forth  passionately  here,  because  I  cannot  help 
it: 

"  Oh  Fuller,  there  is  no  need  of  that !  I  forgive  you 
already — I  didn't  at  first,  but  I  do  now  ;  "  and  then  the 
tears  lay  their  forcible  veto  on  the  utterance  of  another 
syllable. 

"  Hush,"  he  murmurs,  solemnly  ;  "  I  will  not  let  you 


PURPLE  AND  FINE  LINEN. 


483 


forgive  me  yet  awhile.  My  second  task  is  .  .  .  ." 
He  pauses  here,  and  pauses  for  a  long  time,  and  at 
length  my  swimming  eyes  seek  his  face  and  I  just  can 
command  voice  enough  to  manage,  in  tremulous  inter- 
rogative : 

"  Well ;  what  is  the  other  task  ?  " 

"That  of  trying  to  love  you,  Helen,  as  you  deserve 
to  be  loved." 

And  then  I  give  a  great  cry  and  draw  away  my  hand 
from  him,  only  that  I  may  gird  his  neck  with  both  arms 
and  lay  my  head  on  his  shoulder.  And  whilst  my  head 
is  lying  there,  I  feel  his  own  arms  stealing  about  me. 

Then  I  raise  my  head  and  murmur  almost  fiercely : 

1 '  Fuller,  you  SHALL  love  me  !  You  are  mine  and  I 
will  have  it  so  !  You  shall  love  me  better,  a  thousand- 
fold, than  you  ever  loved  that  beautiful  demon  !  " 

He  smiles  whilst  kissing  the  hungry  longing  lips  that 
I  lift  to  him.  "  Is  it  a  prophecy,  Helen  ?  " 

"No,"  I  answer,  after  quite  a  silence,  all  the  passion 
gone  from  my  voice  and  nothing  but  humility  left  there. 
"  It  is  not  a  prophecy.  It  is  a  prayer !  " 


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UP  BROADWAY. — Eleanor  Kirk i  50 

MONTALBAN I    75 

LIFE  AND   DEATH I    50 

JARGAL. — By  Victor  Hugo i  50 

CLAUDE  GNECX. — By  Victor  Hugo.,   i  50 

THE   HONEYMOON. A  love  StOry .  .  .  .     I    50 

MARY  iiRANDEGEE. — Cuyler  Pine. . .    i  75 
RENSHAWE. — Cuyler  Pine i  75 


TITAN 2  00 

COUSIN    PAUL I    75 

VANQUISHED. — Agnes  Leonard 175 

MERQUEM. — George  Sand i  75 

Miscellaneous  Works. 

A  BOOK  OF  EPITAPHS. — Amusing,  quaint,  and  curious (new) $i  50 

WOMEN  AND  THEATRES.— A  sketchy  book  by  Olive  Logan i  50 

SOUVENIRS  OF  TRAVEL. — By  Madame  Octavia  Walton  Le Vert 2  oo 

THE  ART  OF  AMUSING. — A  book  of  home  amusements,  with  numerous  illustrations,  i  50 

HOW  TO  MAKE  MONEY  ;  and  how  to  keep  it— T.  A.  Davies i  50 

ITALIAN  LIFE;  and  Legend.— Anna  Cora  Mowatt.     Illustrated 150 

BALLAD  OF  LORD  BATEMAN. — Illustrations  by  Cruikshank  (paper). 25  cts 

ANGELICA  GUSHINGTON. — Thoughts  on  men  and  things i  50 

BEHIND  THE  SCENES  ;  at  the  "  White  House." — By  Elizabeth  Keckley 2  oo 

THE  YACHTMAN'S  PRIMER.  —For  amateur  sailors.    T.  R.  Warren  (paper) sects 

RURAL  ARCHITECTURE. —  By  M.  Field.     With  plans  and  illustrations 2  oo 

LIFE  OF  HORACE  GREELEY. — By  L.  U.  Reavis.     With  Portrait 2  oo 

WHAT  I  KNOW  OF  FARMING.— By  Horace  Greeley. i  50 

THE  P-RANCO-PRUSSIA  N  WAR  IN  1870. — By  M.  D.  Landpn.     With  maps 2  oo 

PRACI  ICAL  TREATISE  ON  LABOR. — By  Heudrick  B.  Wright 2  oo 

TWELVE  VIEWS  OF  HEAVEN. — By  Distinguished  Divines i  50 

HOUSES  NOT  MAlyE  WITH  HANDS. — An  illustrated  juvenile,  illustrated  by  Hoppin  i  oo 

LIVING  WRITERS  OF  THE  SOUTH. — By  Professor  J.  W.  Davidson 2  oo 

CRUISE  OF  THE  ALABAMA  AND  SUMTER. — By  Captain  Scmmes i  50 

NOJOQUE.-  A  question  for  a  continent.     By  .H.  R.  Helper .......  2  oo 

IMl'KM DING   CRISIS   OF   THE   SOUTH.                              Do.                        ....              2  OO 

NEGROliS   IN    NEGROLAND.                                                   Do.                      (paper) I    OO 


CHARLES  DICKENS'  WORKS. 


A  New  Edition. 

Among  the  numerous  editions  of  the  works  of  this  greatest  of  Eng- 
lish Novelists,  there  has  not  been  until  now  one  that  entirely  satisfies  the 

public  demand Without  exception,  they  each  have  some 

strong  distinctive  objection,  .  .  .  either  the  shape  and  dimensions 
of  the  volumes  are  unhandy — or,  the  type  is  small  and  indistinct— or, 
the  paper  is  thin  and  poor — or,  the  illustrations  [if  they  have  any]  are 
unsatisfactory — or,  the  binding  is  bad — or,  the  price  is  too  nigli. 

A  new  edition  is  now,  however,  published  by  G.  W.  Carleton  &  Co. 
of  New  York,  which,  it  is  believed,  will,  in  every  respect,  completely 
satisfy  the  popular  demand.  .  .  .  It  is  known  as 

4 'Car  let  oil's  New  Illustrated  Edition." 

The  size  and  form  is  most  convenient  for  holding,  .  .  the  type  is 
entirely  new,  and  of  a  clear  and  open  character  that  has  received  the 
approval  of  the  reading  community  in  other  popular  works. 

The  illustrations  are  by  the  original  artists  chosen  by  Charles 
Dickens  himself  .  .  .  and  the  paper,  printing,  and  binding  are 
of  the  most  attractive  and  substantial  character. 

The  publication  of  this  beautiful  new  edition  was  commenced  in 
April,  1873,  and  will  be  completed  in  20  volumes — one  novel  each 
month — at  the  extremely  reasonable  price  of  $1.50  per  volume,  as 
follows  : — 


I — THE  PICKWICK  PAPERS. 
2 — OLIVER  TWIST. 
3 — DAVID  COPPERFIELD. 
4 — GREAT  EXPECTATIONS. 
5 — DOMBEY  AND  SON. 
6 — BARNABY  RUDGE. 
7 — NICHOLAS  NICKLEBY. 
8 — OLD  CURIOSITY  SHOP. 
9 — BLEAK  HOUSE. 
10 — LITTLE  DORRIT. 


II — MARTIN  CHUZZLEWIT. 

12 — OUR  MUTUAL  FRIEND. 

13 — TALE  OF  TWO  CITIES. 

14 — CHRISTMAS  BOOKS. 

15 — SKETCHES  BY  "BOZ." 

1 6 — HARD  TIMES,  ETC. 

17 — PICTURES  OF  ITALY,  ETC. 

1 8 — UNCOMMERCIAL  TRAVELLER. 

19 — EDWIN  DROOD,  ETC. 

20 — MISCELLANIES. 


Being  issued,  month  by  month,  at  so  reasonable  a  price,  those  who 
begin  by  subscribing  for  this  work,  will  imperceptibly  soon  find  them- 
selves fortunate  owners  of  an  entire  set  of  this  best  edition  of  Dickens' 
Works,  almost  without  having  paid  for  it. 

A  Prospectus  furnishing  specimen  of  type,  sized-page,  and  illustra- 
tions, will  be  sent  to  any  one.  free  on  application — and  specimen  copies 
of  the  bound  books  will  be  forwarded  by  mail,  postage  free,  on  receipt 
of  price,  $1.50,  by 

G.  W.  CARLETON  &  Co.,  Publishers, 

Madison  Square,  New  York. 


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I.— The  Art  of  Conversation, 

With  Directions  for  Self-Culture.  An  admirably  conceived  and  entertaining 
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desires  to  be  either  a  good  talker  or  listener,  or  who  wishes  to  appear  to  advan- 
tage in  good  society.  Every  young  and  even  old  person  should  read  it,  study  it 
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be  found  chapters  upon — 
ATTENTION  :N  CONVERSATION. — SAT- 
IRE.—PUNS. — SARCASM.^-  TEASING. — 
C  ENSURE.  —  FAULT-FINDING. —  EGOT- 
ISM.—POLITENESS.— COMPLIMENTS.— 
STORIES.-ANECDOTES.-QUESTIONING. 
-LIBERTIES.— IMPUDENCE.-  STARING. 


— DISAGREEABLE    SUBJECTS.  —  SEL- 


FISHNESS. — ARGUMENT.— SACRIFICES. 
— SILENT  PEOPLE. — DINNER  CON- 
VERSATION.—TIMIDITY.— ITS  CURE.— 
MODESTY. — CORRECT  LANGUAGE. — 
SELF-INSTRUCTION.— MISCELLANEOUS 
KNOWLEDGE. — LANGUAGES. 


II.— The  Habits  of  Good  Society. 

A  Handbook  for  Ladies  and  Gentlemen.  With  thoughts,  hints,  and  anecdotes 
concerning  social  observances,  nice  points  of  taste  and  good  manners,  and  the 
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GENTLEMEN'S  PREFACE. 

LADIES'  PREFACE. — FASHIONS. 

THOUGHTS  ON  SOCIETY. 

GOOD  SOCIETY. — BAD  SOCIETY. 

THE  DRESSING-ROOM. 

THE  LADIES'  TOILET. — DRESS. 

FEMININE  ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

MANNERS  AND  HABITS. 

PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  ETIQUETTE. 

MARRIED  AND  UNMARRIED  LADIES. 

Do  DO    GENTLEMEN. 

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VISITING  ETIQUETTE. — DINNERS. 
DINNER  PARTIES. 


LADIES  AT  DINNER. 
DINNER  HABITS. — CARVING. 
MANNERS  AT  SUPPER.— BALLS. 
MORNING  PARTIES.— PICNICS. 
EVENING  PARTIES. — DANCES. 
PRIVATE  THEATRICALS. 
RECEPTIONS.  — ENGAGEMENTS. 
MARRIAGE  CEREMONIES. 
IN  VITATIONS. — DRKSSES. 
BRIDESMAIDS.  — PRESENTS.- 
TRAVELLING  ETIQUETTE. 
PUBLIC  PROMENADE. 
COUNTRY  VISITS.— CITY  VISITS. 


III.— Arts  of  Writing,  Reading,  and  Speaking. 

An  exceedingly  fascinating  work  for  teaching  not  only  the  beginner,  but  for 
perfecting  every  one  in  these  three  most  desii'able  accomplishments.  For  youth 
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SAY. — WHAT  NOT  TO  SAY. — How  TO 


READING  &  THINKING.— LANGUAGE. — 
WORDS,  SENTENCES,  &  CONSTRUCTION. 
WHAT  TO  AVOID. — LETTER  WRITING.— 
PRONUNCIATION. — EXPRESSION. — TONE 
RELIGIOUS  READINGS.— THE  BIBLE.— 
PRAYERS. — DRAMATIC  READINGS.— THE 
ACTOR  &  READER. — FOUNDATIONS  FOR 
ORATORY  AND  SPEAKING. — WHAT  TO 


BEGIN.-  GAUTIONS.-DELIVERY.  -WRIT- 
ING A  SPEECH. — FIRST  LESSONS. — PUB- 
LIC SPEAKING.— DELIVERY.-  ACTION. 
ORATORY  OF  THE  PULPIT. — COMPOSI- 
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HUMOR.— THE  PLATFORM.— CONSTRUC- 
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beautiful  new  minature  edition  of  these  very  popular  books  has  just 
been  published,  entitled  "  THE   DIAMOND  EDITION,"  three  little  volumes,   ele- 
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*+*  These  books  are  all  sent  by  mail,  postage  free,  on  receipt  of  price,  by 

G.  W.  CAHLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  Madison  Square,  New  York, 


MARY  J.  HOLMES'  WORKS. 


i.— TEMPEST  AND  SUNSHINE.    *  8.— MARIAN  GRAY. 

2. -ENGLISH  ORPHANS.  9.— DARKNESS  AND  DAYLIGHT. 

S.-HOMESTEAD  ON  HILLSIDE.    ".-HUGH  WORTHINGTON. 

'LFNA  RIVERS  xx.-CAMERON  PRIDE. 

I2.-ROSE   MATHER. 
5.— MEADOW  BROOK. 

6. -DORA  DEANE. 


13.— ETHELYN'S   MISTAKE. 
14.— MILLBANK. 


7.— COUSIN  MAUDE.  «^i5.-EDNA  BROWNING. 


OPINIONS    OF   THE    PRESS. 

"Mrs.  Holmes'  stories  are  universally  read.  Her  admirers  are  numberless. 
She  is  in  many  respects  without  a  rival  in  the  world  of  fiction.  Her  characters 
are  always  life-like,  and  she  makes  them  talk  and  act  like  human  beings,  subject 
to  the  same  emotions,  swayed  by  the  same  passions,  and  actuated  by  the  same 
motives  which  are  common  among  men  and  women  of  every  day  existence.  Mrs. 
Holmes  is  very  happy  in  portraying  domestic  life.  Old  and  young  peruse  her 
stories  with  great  delight,  for  she  writes  in  a  style  that  all  can  comprehend." — 
New  York  Weekly. 

"Mrs.  Holmes'  stories  are  all  of  a  domestic  character,  and  their  interest, 
therefore,  is  not  so  intense  as  if  they  were  more  highly  seasoned  with  sensational- 
ism, but  it  is  of  a  healthy  and  abiding  character.  Almost  any  new  book  which  her 
publisher  might  choose  to  announce  from  her  pen  would  get  an  immediate  and 
general  reading.  The  interest  in  her  tales  begins  at  once,  and  is  maintained  to 
the  close.  Her  sentiments  are  so  sound,  her  sympathies  so  warm  and  ready, 
and  her  knowledge  of  manners,  character,  and  the  varied  incidents  of  ordinary 
life  is  so  thorough,  that  she  would  find  it  difficult  to  write  any  other  than  an 
excellent  tale  if  she  were  to  try  it." — Boston  Banner. 

"  Mrs.  Holmes  is  very  amusing ;  has  a  quick  and  true  sense  of  humor,  a 
sympathetic  tone,  a  perception  of  character,  and  a  familiar,  attractive  style, 
pleasantly  adapted  to  the  comprehension  and  the  taste  of  that  large  class  of 
American  readers  for  whom  fashionable  novels  and  ideal  fantasies  have  no 
charm." — Henry  T.  Tuckerman. 


The  volumes  are  all   handsomely  printed    and   bound    in   cloth, — sold 
everywhere,  and  sent  by  mail,  postage  free,  on  receipt  of  price  [$1.50  each],  by 

G.  W.  CARLETON  &  CO.,   Publishers, 

Madison  Square,  New  York. 


KISS 


CENTS 


LD2l-100m-7/40(693as) 


929797 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


